The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1886-01-28
From the Southern Cultivator, January. 1851
VAST INDUSTRY
That Wakes the Earth Smile and
Laugh with "a Harvest.

|
| Laugh with "a Harvest.
What Mr. George W. Scott has done in tie Way Of
| Encouraging Agr5cutuw-I Interesting History If
| Gas ypium P>spAo o-Cottoa Seed OIL Frisnl
| t0 Fdtmcrs
AT the close of the war Colonel George
| w. Scott was III command of the Confed.
| crate forces in the subdistrict of Middle
ami West Florida and Southwest Georgia
| After the surrender he returned to his
| plant alton near Tallahassee, where he
won the esteem and &C ntidence of the
people of Florida, ,7ho offered him the
highest honors within their reach, and
which, feeling that his work was in an
other direction than politics, he declined
Realizing that the old system had pass
ed away, and that planting to be protita-
bic with free labor would have to be con
d"c!ed on plan that would admit of an
| economy of labor, Colonel Scott turned
| his attention TO saving all manures origi-
mating on the plantation, compo. ling them
with Gotten SEED, and to the fullest extent
utilizing e"er ything that could be made
| available. He soon fou I'd, however, with
all his efforts he CO I'D not get together
| fro n tn es 81 fcie 1t material to
properly manure more than one third Of
| his crops. AS an experiment he pur-
chased in Baltimore ton each of Peru
Wan guano and NJ. John Merryman'>
ammoniated phosphate, the former cost
| ing him, delivered at his plantation. one
hundred and ten dolla,' and the latter
| eighty-fige dollars in gold-these he ap-
- oc D II =. ]
| his compost and obtain d good ,esults.
The cost of tfese fertilizers was, how
ever, so hich that he tn ned his attention
to originating substitute at home. In
| his searches for informs ton he purchased
"Veils Works on Agriculture in France"
and several English works on expert
ments with Fertilizers in England. From
these he gathered some information as to
tho mode Of preparing concentrated
| fertilizers" Having fine crop of sugar
cane that year and, as a result, over fifty
barrels OF syrup, he said to his foreman,
"he would give gallon of syrup for
each 100 pounds Of clean, dried bones,
delivered at h ) ginhouse" His foreman
let this proposition be generally known in
that densely Negro populated section,
| anu IL ~ ltu a VI IOCS W itil
bags of bones on their heads, who soon
supplied him with pile of bones nearly
as large as his ginhouse; he had utilized
small stream that ran through his plan
tation bv putting in an overshOt wheel
| l6 feet in diameter, with which he ran a
corn mill, saw gin and roller gin, an
was about to put in sugar mill through
the shaft of the sugar mill he put arms to
drive SCI of heavy cast-iron stamps,
which, with strong iron bed plate, consti
tuted an efficient mill for crushing the bones
these, after careful screening by "Old
Major" were wheeled and dumped into
a wooden tG TX, whe e they were treated
with sulphuric acid, wAich was shipped
ON New York in carboys. and after a
tho.,or n manipulation by "Uncle Mil
ton" and Harry" with hoes and long
handled spades, were lrned out a tolerl
able article of superpho phate; this was
composted with cotton seed, making a
con pound which gave fine results on cot
ton and corn. Finding in the English
and French works efe.red to that expei
iments made with rape eed cakes com
posted with phosphate gave good results,
| he concluded to test cotton seed cake
and see what fertilizing properties it had
| and if it could not be utilized. In 1867,
he therefore procured On o cotton seed
Ike from New Orleans, had it analyzad,
and fnL ing it cor aired rather more nj
. o. EN- than ra,,e-sced cake, he had it
broke mp and .,rornd; in this pulver
| izel state it was mi Sed with bone phos
phate I'd wool ashes; this mixture g, ave
| oI, II.. NJ hn
mix re phosphate anu COTTON seed
| he reasons we e parent, the meal was
| in a condition to be "A. imila Led as plant
food and oae pound of it contained as
much ammonia ~ three pounds of seed,
| thus making a much more concentrated
| manure. He also fO nd in the works men
tiored, that the flo SIS and gardeners of
the nobility when flo wers and vegetables
were dc ired o. of season forced them
to maturity in the con. vatories by use
| of a solution of nitrate OF soda and sui
phate of ammonia. All these ideas he
combined, realizing that in the bone he
| had the best known base-that in the
pure ann onia which would go into solu
| ton as soon as it came in contact with
the moisture in the .oii, he hal mate
rial that would at ice push forward the
young plant to vigorous growth; thai
in the cotton seed meal he bad material
which would gradually give off its am
n onia as it went into decomposition in
the soil and thus carrying the plant
through the season without danger oi
shedding By the use of high grade mu-
rate rs the potash material he had the
formula complete for the now famous
Gossypium phospho- cotton phosphate
/ Goasypinm being the generic name O
Soon after the discovery Of the phos