The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1897-02-22

ned until the most abjcct poverty. semi
starvation. semi-nakedness and consequent
woeful Ignorance starcs the skinner
and his family in the face; he bewaiis his
hard fate, cusses his luck" turns his
little farm over to the holder of the mort
gage ana goes west" TO make a success
Of farming in general ami cotton raising in
particular. one should feed his land before
it gets hungry and feed it SO literally that
inc soil shall at all times contain actual
surplus of plant food. When this is done.
two or three. or even four bales per acre
may be not only hoped for. but confidently
expected; while, on the contrary. if il is
not done, it would be utter folly to look for
large yields. on all naturally poor or par
TALLY exhausted soils. the first step to-
ward their reclamation, revocation or per-
mancut enrichment is To so systematic our
rotation as that all our land upon which
cotton is raised shall be either planted TO-
or sown GowE in cowpeas every two or
three years, preferably-two. The peas
shCCld DO fertilized with not less than -03
pound of acid phosphate and 2c pounds
of kainit to the acre. Double these
amounts would be preferable. BY doing
this one not only keeps mp the supply Of
vegetable matter or "humus" which is So
VIGOROUSLY deficient IN all weIl-wom
southern soils and Of necessity Will stiI
remain SO as long our lands are too
exclusively devoted to cotton and other
clean-hocd crops. but we also raise our
own needed supply of nitrogen. which
though 50 abundant i'm the atmosphere
that four-fths of ii. four-Gfths of the air
We breathe lis composed of IT, vet il is
entirely out of our reach except as at
tracted. abstracted and stored mp for fu-
ture use by the henefcieut. humble Vet cx-
tremely valuable '1egumes" as cowpcas
clover. ctc. This nitrogen viii cost ON tine
maEkct-in any shape I'm which ID can be
purchased-not less than u cents per
pound. An all-wIse ana bcncdcent Creator
has 50 arranged matters AS that this nitro
gen that is so Indispensable to tine entire
vegetable kingdom. yet so high priced iu
the markets of the world can be obtained
by aay and every soil tillei in TIN greatest
of supcr-a bundauec absolutely free of cost
without the expenditure of one single cent
Shall We utilize this hcaveu-sent blessinge
or shall We neglect il anu purchase ni-
trogen costing Il cents per pound herewith
To raise cotton at cents per pound2 Can
you see amy money in this latter trans
action? If there is any in il. il certainly
is not for the cotton raiser. The true pol
icy for tho cotton raiser is To plant less
cotton and more peas. to plant peas a
feed" crop and as q fertilizer crop. To-
fcrtilize them literally with the cheaper
material substance phosphates and pot
ash. as per above formula TINS plan viii
not only give cheap cotton and cheap corn.
but it will If persisted in year after year
give US abundance of both ON half or less
than half OF the area row planted. while
the fertility of our soils viii be annually
OF potash per acre.
Tbs would correspond to a fertilizer
containing about So per cent phosphorc
acid. 3 per cent nitrogen and per cent
potash. Now. while this formula gave
good results in this case. Sun il might
not suit All conditions. ON an average,
though We should think that IL weii-bai-
anced fertilizer for cottou should contain
about per cent phoSpnoric acid 2ia per
cent nitrogen ana 6 per cent potash. of
which 900 20 sou pounds to the acre might
be used. In this connection we would
state that our views are identical vith
that of many of the more progressive