Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1886-04-15
COTTON-SEED MEAL.
The Best and Most Economical Fertilizer
for Southern Farmers.

The Best and Most Economical Fertilizer
for Southern Farmers.
Cotton-seed meal is coming into gen.
eral use among the farmers of the
South, for fertilizing purposes, as they
learn it is q more effective manure
than the whole seed. 1t used to be the
custom to apply it alone to such crops
as corn and cotton; but of late years it
has become generally known that its
effects are obtained most advanta-
geously when it is mixed with kainii
and acid phosphate.
: The meal contains nearly per cent.
of ammonia, but only p of phosphoric
acid and 81 of potash. and therefore
when acid phosphate, which contains
49, per cent. of phosphoric acid, and
kainit with ID per cent. of potash are
added, it will be seen that very pow
erful compound is formed. The usual
proportions are 1000 pounds of the
meal, 500 pounds of the acid phosphate
and 500 pounds of kainit; and when
mixed together the total cost OF the
mixture will be about 1922 per ton.
1t must be borne in mind that the
three chemical ingredients named are
those that are especially valuable to
crops, and must be contained in all
manures that pretend to contain the
requirements Of plants. And the ex-
perience of cotton farmers has demon
strated that none of the guanos that
are sold for even much higher prices
can approach this compound in effect
i've value.
The addition of a ton of stable manure
forms, with the other three ingredients,
the very best compost known in the
South This compost, which is practi-
cally what is known elsewhere as eur
mans formula has been in use in
South Carolina since 1877, but has been
known in Georgia and the other States
during the past five years only. 1t is
simply in accordance with common
sense to mix together, in due proper
tons, the materials that contain the
elements needed by crops and it is
what any farmer can do for himself.
The meal is more valuable for man
ure than the whole seed, because it is
more Immediately available to the
plants, and contains larger per.
centage Of fertilizing matter in proper.
ton to the bulk. When the whole seed
is used, considerable portion of il
does not rot, but dries and shrivels, OF
rots so slowly that the growing crop
fails to benefit by it. And in all case,
the oil in the seed retards the rottine
greatly; while this oil has In itself nj
manurial value whatever, but only rep
resents so much value wasted when the
whole seed is used.
| In a ton of seed-aboL Ga bushels
there are about So gallons of oil, wortl
s. cents per gallon; and therefor'
where whole seed is used about $l2.2
actual value is thrown away; beside
which, one ton of the whole seed i
really not as effective as the 800 pound
of meal that could be obtained from it
Accurately one ton of whole seed ha
an effective manurial value to the sol
of 1880. while the 500 pounds of mea
that it contains has an effective valu
of 1928.
Many of the oil mills, and there ar
1856 of them In the South, offer to ex
change with farmers one ton of mea
for two tons of whole cotton seed. an,
to pay the transportation both ways
Wherever this can be done it is a yer
advantageous arrangement for tn
farmers. But it is a suicidal policy TO
them to sell their seed outright to tn
mills; for very few of them will eve
buy back the meal, and their lands wi
be permanently impoverished. If the
will persist in selling their seed, the
should at least realize that even in il
whole state it has an effective value {
the soil of fully thirty cents per bushe
and when they are induced to pal
with 1t for less price, they are in
! posed upon.-Farm and Homestead,