The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1882-11-21

Giving total OF nearly three thousand
dollars profit on my two-horse farm. ALI
Of the work on this was done by two or
dinary mules with the exception of
eighteen days ploughing Of one animal,
and assistance from my carriage horses
in hauling tiny compost, which could
have been avoided BY starting little
earlier in it's distribution.
Now let us figure little and see how
the compost pays. Two thousand pounds
of my mixture costs. II you have TO buy
the cotton seed that sre used in it, e725,
the first year, therefore, 500 pounds to
the acre, cost $l.8O per acre or on the
sixty-ive acres, $111.O0; but the crop
rose from eight to twelve bales, or an in
crease in value of 100000, giving profit
from the use of the manure Of 483. 90
The second year using one thousand
pounds to the acre we have a cost of $3.50
per acre or on the sixty-five acres $234.00,
but the crop increased from eight to
twenty.three bales, an increase in value
OF $750.O0, giving as profit on the ma
nure $4,000. The third year the COM
post cost $7.25 per acre or total of 4471,
but the crop went up from eight, without
manure, to forty-seven, giving q gain in
value of $l,950.00. and a clear profit OF
over the unmanured land of nearly fif-
teen hundred dollars. Are not these fig
ures enough to convince any one that the
immediate return from such q manure is
highly remunerative? But the immedi-
ate return is not all when / began with
my sixty-6ve acres, five dollars an acre
would have been a high price for the land !;
to-day / would not take for it one hun
dred dollars per acre, and it IN improving
with every crop.
Now to give you the formula upon
which my compost is made: Take thirty
bushels well rotted stable manure or well
rotted organic matter, as leaves, muck,
ETC., and scatter it about three inches
thick upon piece of ground so situated
that water will not stand on it, bat shed
off in every direction. The thirty bushels
will weigh about nine hundred pounds !;
take two hundred pounds of good acid
phosphate, which cost me $225O per ton,
delivered, making the two hundred pounds
cost 1925, and one hundred pounds
kainit, which cost me, by the ton $l4.OO,
delivered, or seventy cents for one hun
dred pounds, and mix the acid phosphate
and kainit thoroughly, then scatter evenly
on the manure. Take next thirty bushels
green cotton seed and distribute evenly
over the pile, and wet them thoroughly
they will weigh nine hundred pounds ;
take again two hundred pounds acid
phosphate and seven hundred pounds
kainit, mix, and spread over the seed,
begin again on the manure and keep on it
this way, building up your heap layer
by layer until you get it as high as con-
venient, then cover with six inches of rich
earth from fence corners, and leave at
least six weeks; when ready to haul to
the field cut with a spade or pickaxe
square down and mix as thoroughly as
possible. Now we have thirty bushels of
manure weighing nine hundred pounds,
and three hundred pounds chemicals in
the first layer, and thirty bushels cotton
seed, weighing nine hundred pounds and
three hundred pounds of chemicals in the
second layer, and these two layers COM
bined form the perfect compost. You
peceive that the weight is 2,40o pounds.
Value at cost is:
30 Bushels cotton seed, 1874 cents. 1875
400 pounds acid phosphate. $50
2OO pounds kainit. 40
Stable manure nominal.
, lotal. ..... $3.50
Or for 2,40O pounds total value of $9.65.
This mixture makes practically perfect
manure for cotton and splendid applica-
tion for corn. TO have perfect manure
for cotton, we need Phosphoric acid, am
monia, humus, potash, lime, magnesia
soda and silica.
Now commercial fertilizers furnish us
three of these only, phosphoric acid, am
monia and potash, and for long time no
potash was used in their composition.
Hence, don't you see what an imperfect
manure for cotton the best of these fertil-
izers must be. Now my compost contains
every element needed:
Acid phosphate gives phophoric acid
and lime
Stall manure or organic matter gives
and humus.
Cotton seed gives ammonia, potash and
humus.
Kainit gives potash, lime, magnesia
and soda.
Silica is always present in the soil, is
in inexhaustible quantities; so
we have in my compost everything essen
tial supplied. You will readily perceive
in this formula the vast Importance of
kainit, containing, as it does, nearly one
third of its bulk of salt, it is a great con-
of moisture. I have found it,
combined with humus, specific against
rust in cotton, and owing to its contents
of sulphate of magnesia it is invaluable in
the power that it possesses in the COM
post heap of fixing the ammonia as a sui
phate and thereby preventing its escape.
l regard its discovery in the bosom of the
earth at Leopold Hall, in Germany, along
with that Of the phosphate beds at Charles
ton. which occurred almost simultaneous
ly, as the greatest boon that kind prov
idence has bestowed upon the agricul-
tural community in the last century.
Now, gentlemen, let us take it for
granted that upon the plan / suggest, be-
fore planting your crop, you have made
your compost heap, and put into your
ground more than your crop will take out,
then one cause for the deterioration of
your land has certainly been removed.
The scientific tronble is gone but the me-
chanical difficulty remains.
Shall say what that isp Do you not
all recognize itp It is the fearful lors Of
the top soil with it's valuable elements of
fertility, caused by our tropical washing
rains and the shallow system Of culture to
which we are driven in the cultivation Of
our standard crops, corn and cotton. For