The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1879-10-25

i IIC ouOJCNl VI uSl III (OllOH ID vi Ill
terest only to planters in the country
lying below the clay belt" says a cores
pendent of the South Carolina Democrat
"We all know clay lands do not rust cot
ton, but continue to mature fruit until
frost. Why they do this will be appar-
emf as we proceed. What is rust in cotton?
Some will tell you it is want of veg eta
BILE matter in the soil; others that it is
caused by an excess of moisture; others
again that cool nights produce it; and
have heard some old farmers say it always
starts from pokeweed growing near the
cotton. Now all these different opinions
prove conclusively that this scourge of
our cotton fields has been having its own
way not because there is no remedy for it
but because the disease is so little under
stood. 1t cannot be for want of vegetable
matter in the soil, for we frequently see
cotton rusting in soils abundantly supplied
with vegetable matter. I'll admit it does
correct it to a limited extent. / have seen
cotton almost entirely destroyed by rust
in bottoms where there was an abundance
of vegetable humus washed in from sur
rounding hills. Neither can moisture be
the prevailing cause, or the clay lands
would also suffer by rust in wet seasons;
and the same reasons may be assigned
why cool nights do not cause it. The poke
weed does not grow everywhere and
particularly about these rusty cotton
patches; therefore the blame cannot be
laid at its door.
''Ihen if none of these opinions advan-
ced are the cause of rust, what is it that
causes cotton to rust on nearly all the
lands below the cotton or clay belt? My
answer is, the want of sufficient potash in
the soil. Now for the proof. Why does
rust start and spread from a pokeweed
growing near the cotton? Not solely be-
cause it takes the disease from the poke,
but because the poke has exhausted all
the available potash in the soil near it
and the cotton near, being the first to feel
the want of potash, shows symptoms of
rust. The analysis of poke and Irish po-
tato vines shows that they contain more
potash than any other vegetable product
We are also taught that clay soils abound
in potash, hence the absence of rust in
cotton on them and in consequence their
superior adaptabilty to cotton. In 1879
/ applied fifty bushels of unleached ashes
to an acre of land that had been rusting
cotton badly. The cotton remained green
until frost and matured fruit to the top
when the adjoining cotton failed to ma
ture any top clop and some of it died with
rust the first of September. That strip of
land has not rusted cotton since The
potash in the ashes was what the soil
needed to keep the cotton from rusting
1.-The following year one of my hands
put sack of kainit or German potash salt
on one acre, through the middle of a
seven acre patch of cotton. The land had
been in cultivation four years, light, san
dy. oak land, and rusted cotton badly. In
the. fall IT was a pleasure to show this
acre strip to my friends, while the cotton
on both sides of it was denuded of leaves
and all the top bolls dead before half
grown This acre remained green until
frost and matured its fruit to the TOP.
This last experiment itself was evidence
conclusive to my mind that potash was
the remedy for rust in cotton have since
noticed the same results in similar exner-
lments.. believe on lands thoroughly
drained land no other kinds should be
planted in cotton) and not entirely dest;-
tute OF vegetable matter, potash in every
instance will correct the tendency to rust
IN cotton. By rest and rotation the ten.
dency to rust can be corrected in a GREAT
measure, but when lands are planted
every year and clay is not near tbe sur.
lace potash must be supplied either in
unlimited amounts of trash and litter fron,
the woods, stable manure, ashes or some
OF the commercial preparations of potash y