@HAPTER XVI. 
BUYING FERTILITY FOR THE SOIL 
Thesmall yield of cotton peracre over the greater 
part of the Cotton Belt is due to poor management 
in maintaining fertility, small quantities of home- 
made manures, sale of cotton seed from the farm, poor 
tillage, the limited growing of leguminous crops, an 
ill-planned tenantsystem, and the lack of systematic 
crop rotation in the management of cotton farms. 
All these factors have contributed to the small re- 
turns in yield and to the constantly increasing de- 
mands for commercial fertilizers. 
Where attentionis given toall these details cotton 
growing becomes at once the most profitable of all 
kinds of farming in the whole world. 
The small farm, as well as the large plantation, 
is ever confronted with new phases of management; 
the owner is successful in proportion to his ability 
to meet these new phases and so adjust them to his 
work that they will conduce to his profit and 
advantage. 
The use of commercial fertilizers has assumed 
gigantic proportions in cotton production and calls 
for constant discussion. 
We have mentioned elsewhere that of the four- 
teen chemical elements demanded by the cotton 
plant, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are the 
only ones likely to be deficient in old soils, and, 
(126) 
