278 SOILS AND PLANT LIFE 



two or three years is essential, as, for example, cotton 

 followed by crimson clover the first year ; corn, the second 

 year; and wheat followed by cowpeas the third year. 



It is unnecessary that the field occasionally " lay out," that 

 is, be left idle to grow up to weeds for two or three years. 



A rotation, moreover, tends to hold in check that 

 dreaded enemy of the cotton grower, the boll weevil. 



Fertilizers. — There is probably no general crop grown 

 in this country upon which commercial fertilizers are so 

 extensively and profitably used as upon cotton. The 

 Georgia Station has found after fourteen years of experi- 

 mental work that upland, worn soils should receive nitro- 

 gen, phosphorus and potassium in the ratio of three, ten 

 and three. 



On many of the prairie soils containing plenty of Ume, 

 the use of commercial fertilizers is not profitable, while 

 even on soils where their use now brings returns, a careful 

 rotation will greatly lessen the need of them. 



Seed Bed and Seeding. — Land which is to be planted 

 to cotton should not be left bare during the winter. Crim- 

 son clover, bur clover or winter vetch, sown in the fall and 

 plowed under not later than February first, will make a 

 loose, fertile seed bed. 



If a fertiUzer is to be used, it is often placed in a furrow, 

 opened by a Uster, or " middle buster," as it is called. 

 The soil is then thrown back over the fertilizer with a small 

 plow ; and the seed is planted over it with a slight furrow 

 left between the rows. 



Another method used is to open the furrows with a 

 lister, or middle buster, from three to four feet apart, and 

 to plant the seed on the ridges with a single row planter, 

 adding fertilizer with the seed as desired. 



The practice has been to plant from one to three bushels 

 of seed per acre, which means from 100,000 to 600,000 



