Miscellaneous. 



428 



[Nov. 1906. 



amounts of phosphoric acid and potash, although small, are practically unavailable 

 to the current crop to which the seed may be applied as a fertilizer. Add to 

 this the further facts that the cotton meal is much more promptly available to 

 plants ; its bulk and weight are much less ; its mechanical condition is perfect, 

 etc., and it may not be thought unreasonable to say that 800 pounds of meal are an 

 equivalent to one ton of seed. For years past I have so estimated and have advised 

 farmers accordingly, and have been sustained in a general way by the results of 

 field experiments. As just intimated, the relative or comparative values of cotton- 

 seed and cotton meal do not rest alone on calculations based on the analyses of 

 each. Field experiments are the true and final test of value, and these experiments 

 are not wanting, both in fullness and significance. These experiments were 

 conducted under my direction for the express purpose of determining the relative 

 effectiveness of cottonseed and cotton meal, and I vouch for the correctness of the 

 results. The first experiment was made on corn in 1891, and was reported in Bulletin 

 No. 15 of the Georgia Experiment Station, issued in December, 1891. I quote, in 

 part, from the bulletin, but omit the table showing the results in detail :— 



It is manifestly the duty of Experiment Station workers to disabuse the 

 minds of farmers of error, as well as to discover new truths — to disprove as well as 

 to prove. In the effort to correct error it may sometimes result in convincing the 

 experimenter that there is more or less truth in the supposed error. The experi- 

 ment was undertaken with the sole purpose to find the truth, A piece of second 

 year's new ground was selected. Nine plots, of three rows each, four feet wide and 

 209 feet long, were fertilized and planted as indicated in Table VII. Plots and 9 

 were unfertilized. Plots 1, 3, 5 and 7 were fertilized at the rate, per acre, of— 



Superphosphate ... ... ... ... 286 pounds. 



Muriate of potash ... ... ... ... 37 ,, 



Crushed cottonseed ... ... ... ... 381 „ 



704 pounds. 



Plots 2, 4, 6 and 8 were fertilized at the rate, per acre, of — 



Superphosphate ... ... ... ... 286 pounds. 



Muriate of potash ... ... ... ... 37 ,, 



Cottonseed meal ... ... ... ... 143 „ 



Cottonseed hulls ... ... ... ... 180 ,, 



646 pounds. 



The amounts of the different ingredients applied in the two series of plots 

 were substantially the same, except that the 60 pounds of oil that are found in 

 381 pounds of crushed seed are left out in the second series, using the corresponding 

 amounts of meal and hulls instead. The experiment then amounts practically to 

 a direct test of the value of cotton oil as a fertilizer. If the oil has any fertilizing 

 value, the first series of plots should show a larger yield of corn than the second 

 series. It should be noted that in this experiment the hulls properly appertaining 

 to the quantity of cotton meal used was also applied with the m eal. 



Now examine the table, plot by plot, and then compare the average yield 

 per acre of the plots on which the crushed seed were used, with the average yield 

 of those on which the meal aud hulls— the oil left out— were used. It will be seen 

 that the plots manured with crushed seed yielded an average of 29-2 bushels of 

 corn per acre ; while the plots without the oil yielded an average of 28"9 bushels 

 per acre— a difference in favor of the crushed seed (containing all the oil) of three- 

 tenths of a bushel. Of course, this difference is insignificant — no more than might 

 have been reasonably expected had the plots been manured exactly alike. Even 

 if admitted that the increase of three-tenths of a bushel of corn, equal to 20 cents 



