Nov. 1906. J 



429 



Miscellaneous. 



in value, is to be credited to the man u rial effect of the oil, the gain of 20 cents' 

 worth of corn is made at the cost of 60 pounds of oil, worth $1*75 ! The unfertilized 

 check plots yielded an average of 15 - 8 bushels per acre. 



The second experiment was also made on corn, in 1894, and was published 

 in Bulletiu No. 27 of the Georgia Experiment Station. It was planned and executed 

 in the same manner and detail as the first described experiment, and 1 will give 

 only the net results :— The fourteen alternating plots of three rows each, fertilized 

 with crushed cottonseed, gave an average yield of 29 86 bushels per acre. Tiie 

 average yield of the fourteen plots fertilized with cotton meal and hulls was 30'72 

 bushels per acre. 



The third experiment, also on corn, was made so recently as 1903 and is 

 reported from Bulletin No. 69, published in November last. Omitting the tables 

 the essential results are as follows :— The results are striking and should be con- 

 sidered as fairly conclusive, so far as the experiment can prove anything ; but in 

 connection with the previously made tests, already referred to, should be accepted 

 as final and conclusive. By reference to Table No. 7 it will be seen that the cotton- 

 seed meal plots yielded an average of 36"39 bushels of corn per acre ; while the 

 crushed cottonseed plots gave an average of 34-07 bushels per acre, a difference 

 in favor of the cotton meal of 2'32 bushels per acre. At $22 per ton for cotton meal 

 and $19 a ton for cottonseed — the market prices for these products quoted in 

 Griffin at date of this writing, the cost of the 164 pounds of cotton meal would be 

 $1'80, and the cost of the 370 pounds of cottonseed meal would be $3"51. To state 

 it differently and yet practically, the farmer using the cottonseed instead of the 



cottonseed meal woidd lose as follows : — 



232 bushels of corn at 70 cents per bushel ... ... ... $1*62 



Difference between market value of the meal and seed, in 



favor of the meal... ... ... ... ... T71 



Loss per acre ... $3"33 

 Less cost of 4 pounds of acid phosphate and 3 - 70 pounds 



of nitrate of potash ... ... ... ... 0*12 



Net loss per acre ... $3'21 



Of course, it will be observed that the price of cottonseed used in the 

 calculation is abnormally high, while the meal is about the usual price ; but the 

 result would only be proportionately less striking if the seed be priced lower. The 

 prices above are actually those quoted at the date of this writing. It is also true 

 that the prices of the meal and seed are /. o. b. at the oil mill, involving the hauling 

 or freighting (or both) of the saed from farm to the mill, and the meal from the 

 mill to the farm. It is not difficult to make the proper allowance for this and 

 bring the calculation to the basis of both seed and meal delivered on the farm. The 

 difference between the yields of the two series of plots, one series fertilized with 

 cotton meal and the other with cottonseed, amounting to 2*32 bushels per acre, 

 is certainly not due to any difference between the amounts of plant food in th e 

 two formulas, for these are substantially the same. But the greater yield of the 

 cotton meal plots was doubtless due to the very much better mechanical condition 

 of the meal, and therefore its availability, as compared with the cottonseed. The 

 plant food contained in the hulls of the seed, although not large in amount, was 

 probably totally unavailable to the corn plants. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



. The residts of the experiment abundantly confirmed the conclusion reached 

 in previous experiments ; that it is not expedient to apply cottonseed as a fertilizer 

 directly to corn ; but rather that the seed should be exchanged for meal and the 

 meal used instead as a fertilizer, whenever a fair and equitable basis of exchange 

 can be secured. 

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