124 
COTTON 
COTTON A FAR LESS EXHAUSTIVE CROP 
THAN CORN OR WHEAT 
This table shows several interesting things. The 
most striking fact brought to our attention is this: 
Of the three great staple crops of America, cotton 
is by far the least exhaustive. 
Wheat requires more than twice and corn nearly 
seven times as much plant food as does cotton. 
Nor is this all. We will suppose that cotton seed, 
corn stover and wheat straw are used on the farm, and 
in the end find their way back to the soil. The plant 
food they contain will be returned to the land from 
whence it was taken. We will now find a still 
greater difference in reference to the demands on 
the soil made by each crop, as is shown in the table 
below : 
Crop 
Nitro. 
Phos. 
Potas. 
Total 
190 lbs. lint 
29.4 bus. corn. . 
13.95 bus. wheat 
.65 
32.14 
19.75 
.19 
12.36 
7.44 
.87 
7.06 
5.10 
1.71 
51.56 
32.29 
In respect then to the amounts of nitrogen, phos- 
phorus and potassium required for average acre 
yields of cotton, wheat and corn in the United 
States, wheat calls for 19 times as much of these 
elements as cotton, and corn calls for 30 times as 
much as cotton. 
RETURNING COTTONSEED TO THE SOIL ESSEN- 
TIAL TO ITS PRESERVATION 
The greatest demand on the soil by the cotton 
plant is for seed production. For the average 
