Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-03-28


mercial fertilizers? This is the mcote
question in England and Germany at thi
time. There is strong tendency towar'
the use, and often the exclusive use, o
commercial and concentrated plant food
Conservatism is opposed to this change, bu
science rather favors It.
RAISING COTTON ON POOR LAND
A correspondent Of tina Atlanta ConStitu
ton makes the following statements:
"The impediments heretofore in the way
OF cotton growing on our gray loan up
lands have been the sterility of the soil and
the sbortness of the season. 1t is now fully
ascertained that fertilizers are sure RENE
| dy for both. Major Austin, of Oak Grove,
had three and a half acres of land that
would not grow oats or wheat high enough
to cut, and that would not make any corn.
he tried cotton, using 200 pounds of guano
on acre, and. cleared $47.75 per acre, after
charging to the lot everything that per-
tanned TO it. In the same way Col. Baueh,
of East Point, secured thirty bales from
thirty-eight acres of as poor land as lies
about Atlanta. The boll-worms and cater
pillars never luxuriate at the expense of
North Georgia farmers, and the rust rarely
bothers. Laborers can work the entire
year, and white loborers from the North or
from Europe are not troubled by chills,
feVers or epidemics CT any KIDD"
Farmers writing for the Plantation, from
upper Georgia, speak in terms of equal
commentator of their success In improv-
ing and cultivating poor land. The eli
mate there, as in East Tennessee, is gen.
orally too cold, ard the season for
the growth Of cotton loo short, except to pro-
duce little for home use. Will guano of
any kind hasten the maturity of this sun
plant? 1t viii make larger weed, and
give existence TO more fruit; but will it
give earlier blooms, lint and seed? This is
hardly to be expected. As general fact in
vegetable physiology, it may be stated that
the more wood that forms, the better the
fruit bearing process. To raise thirty bales
Of cotton on thirty eight acres of as s'poor
land as lies about Atlanta" where some Of
the land is about SIS sterile as nature ever
makes it, implies great strength in q little
manure, if only 200 pounds were ap-
piled on an acre. Gray loans and re-
tentive clays possess advantages well
worth studying in connection with guano
and other commercial elements of cotton.
If white laborers can raise this crop at q
large profit in upper Georgia on poor land,
the same class Of laborers can do as much
in Tennessee. Those of our readers who
feel an interest in this matter will find cot
ton culture in northern Georgia fully discus
sed by practical planters in the Plantation.
Without this particular advantage of caus-
ing cotton to ripen its seed earlier, there
are OTHER considerations to prompt the use
of all really active concentrated manures,
provided the cost is not too much for pro-
fit. Farmers should study this matter; for
nothing in planting or farming is better es-
tablished than the doctrine of COM
penssting soils for the crops grown and re-
moved. Nor will it answer to take
away bone from titled earth, and try to
pay the debt with chalk, land plaster or
common salt. Like note payable in gold,
the kind of substances taken out of the soil
must be returned as the proper compensa-
ton. Soils naturally thin and poor, want
snmething more than compensation for
crops removed. They need plant food be-
fore any has been taken up by growing
plants, or lost by washing or teaching, as
the results of blowing and other tillage.
This is the condition of the poor granite
and sandy soils of northern Georgia and
Tennessee. Commercial manuIes appear
TO be necessary TO raise clover, turnips, or
any other valuable plant as q fertiliZing
material. AS one may have TO buy seed
corn to plant, so he may be under the neces-
sity Of purchasing good manure for seed on
naturally poor OF badly worn planta-
ton. Every year adds TO the Importance
of the study of fertilizers. 1t is Lot enorgh
to be told that clear profit of forty. seven
dollars was realised per acre in raising cot
ton on land that would not produce oats
nor wheat high enough to cradle, by the
application of 200 pounds of any fertilissr
whatever. If the fertiliser was .guano, what
did it contain? Gold from Peru can be not
better than the same metal from California
or upper Georgia. If phosphates in the
guano did the needful, South Carolina has
them by the million tons, but possibly less
soluble in water. In Tennessee we greatly
need plant food as cheap as science, labor,
and capital can supply it. One may pay
too much for good thing that is far
fetched.