DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 183 



Formerly little attention was paid to the matter of fertilizers, though the manurial 

 value of soiling crops, such as clover and peas, of fallowing and rotation, was well 

 understood. "In the main," says Prof. H. C. White, "the great hulk of the cotton 

 crop previous to 1860 may he said to have heen grown without artiiicial fertilization 

 and mainly upon virgin soils." In the limits of this brief chapter it will he impos- 

 sible to make a comprehensive statement upon so vast a subject, or to make any 

 statements further than that the necessity not only of using the best fertilizers, but 

 of a knowledge of the chemistry of soil fertility, is now thoroughly appreciated. 

 Among the fertilizers employed, in various combinations, are Peruvian guano, dis- 

 solved bones, land plaster, kainit, acid phosphate, the phosphate rocks, barnyard 

 manures, the many forms of cotton-seed fertilizer, as rotted seed, meal hulls, ash, 

 etc., and others. Those interested in the subject should consult the valuable litera- 

 ture published by the Department of Agriculture, and especially Professor White's 

 comprehensive statements on the manuring of cotton in The Cotton Plant, to which 

 reference has already been made. 



Deep plowing and subsoiling have generally been considered essential in this cul- 

 ture. David Dickson, a successful Georgia grower, says that to stand a two weeks' 

 drought, a cotton plant must have 4 inches depth of soil, 6 inches depth of subsoil, 

 well broken, and for every additional week an inch more of soil with the same sub- 

 soiling. Spon says: In India, the limit as to the depth of plowing is commonly 

 about 6 inches; in America, 12 inches, and in Guiana, 18 inches. It is certain that 

 great benefit would arise from stirring the soil to a depth of even 30 inches, the 

 increased penetration of the roots rendering the plant much more independent of 

 drought, and other external influences. "Subsoiling and deep breaking are open 

 to question. There is no question that a deep, mellow soil is to be preferred, but the 

 efforts to obtain it are limited by the cost, by the risk of injury to some soils through 

 leaching, and to others by bringing sterile earth to the surface. Sandy soils may 

 suffer in the first way, and heavy clays in the second. Experiments to determine 

 the value of these operations are conflicting and inconclusive." {Harry Hammond.) 



The same difference of practice and opinion prevails regarding the time of prepar- 

 ing the land. It commences in November aud continues to March and April, though 

 Mr. Dickson says "the land should be broken as near the time for planting as prac- 

 ticable." After plowing and harrowing, the universal practice is to throw the land 

 into beds or ridges. The plants are usually left 2 to 3 inches above the middle of 

 the row, which in 4-foot rows gives a slope of an inch to the foot. This causes the 

 plow. in cultivating to lean from the plants, to go deepest in the middle of the row, 

 and, as a consequence, to cut fewer roots. Four feet is the usually accepted distance 

 between the rows. The perfect cotton planter is not yet invented. It should drop 

 five or six seed in a single line at regular intervals, say a foot apart. In very dry 

 seasons a narrow and deep coulter furrow, the dirt closing in behind it, is run imme- 

 diately in advance of the planter. It freshens up the bed and assists very much the 

 germination of the seed. (Harry Hammond.) 



The once universal system of planting by hand, though still in vogue on areas of 

 scattered distribution, has been displaced by some form of cotton-seed planter in the 

 great centers of cultivation. Intelligent and enterprising cultivators are not willing 

 to depend on antiquated methods. Formerly, after ridging and opening a shallow fur- 

 row, seed was scattered in it profusely, partly to secure a stand and partly as fertil- 

 izer for the young plants, the superfluous plants to be chopped out with a hoe to any 

 required distance apart. This method requires a large amount of seed. Another 

 plan in great favor was the marking by wheel or other device for measurement, for 

 such cavities made by a dibble may seem popular with those who deem precision in 

 planting essential. So various have been these methods of seeding, combining the 

 idea of fertilization with germination, that the quantity of seed required per acre 

 has scarcely ever been calculated or considered. The time of planting ranges from 

 March 1 in southern Texas, to May 20 in northeast Georgia, and the first blooms 

 appear May 15 in southern Texas to July 25 in northwest Tennessee, Several hoeings 



