The Grenada sentinel., 1899-07-29
| FARMER AND PLANTER.
NEXT YEARS COTTON CROP.
Ninss to Planters In Regard to the
Pisnting of The kields for
Next Years CrOps.

! NlSHBc IHCICu8C IA SAAS ~uAsASs~sA~~> -
til. cow-pea. Fewer fields are to be
seen resting" in the old way by grow
ing up with weeds for future brow
sweatings, but instead the farmers are
fasi learning that the best rest for the
lahd is to keep it in crop that will
shade and protect the soil and gather
fertility for succeeding crops far fast
or than the natural growth. Wild
areas are now in peas that bore crop
of small grain, and the "clover of the
soath" is covering fields that never be-
fore grew it. Many Of these fields are
intended for the cotton crop of next
wear, and as q matter OF course the
owners are thinking how best to use
the pea crop. If they have taken our
advice so often given the press, the
reas have had good dose of phos-
phoric acid and potash in some form,
and where this is the case the course 10
plain, and the cotton crop can be
grown at the smallest cost if the own
er simply adds the seed from this
years crop to the land. One of the
most thoughtful farmers in South Car
olina wrote us that he had found that
in his case, being far removed from
oil mills, where he could exchange the
seed for meal and hulls, he found that
the whole seed after being crushed to
destroy termination gave him excel
lent results when applied as he uses
them. He found that when a mass of
seed or other bulky manure was ap-
plc,l directly in the furrow under the
cotton, there was difficulty in getting
d good stand of the cotton. He found
also that while the seed were valua-
bic fertilizer, they were slow in be-
coming available to the plant as food.
He, therefore, adopted the plan Of
opening furrow midway between the
beds for the cotton, and there burying
the seed. BY the time the cotton had
developed to the point of making
bloom and fruit it had found the seed,
which by that time had decayed to
such an extent sufficient to enable
them to yield up their plant-food, ind
he got better crops in this way. What
we most want to get at, however, is
the best and most economical way to
apply the purchased fertilizers to the
cotton. We have said that where the
pea crop of this year has been we'll
supplied with phosphoric acid and pot
ash there is better chance for next
years cotton. Experience has shown
that an application, Of the potassic fer
tilizers especially, some months before
the planting will show from them bet
ter results than from direct applica-
ton at the planting-time. And not
only this, but their application to the
Eea crop will give heavier crop OF
forage. There is nothing that the cot
ton farmer needs more than plenty of
forage and plenty of cattle to feed it
to. The use of the entire growth of
pess as a manure direct will undoubt-
edly show a greater effect on the sue
cecding crop than the cutting off of
the growth. But the cutting and cur
ing of the crop as hay, and the feed
ing of this hay to cattle, with the care
full saving of manure, will do more for
the farm and the farmer than the
burying OF a crop worth $40 per acre
as food, three-fourths of which value
can be recovered in the manure made
from the feeding.
Another fact in connection with the
using of the whole growth for the cot
ton crop is that it may give an excess
of nigrogen and rank AMI long-limb-
ed growth and late crop. The true
way to use the pea crop preceding
cotton crop is to cut and cure the
vines as hay, feed them to stock and
return to the land the manure thus
lnade. But what shall the man do who
did not put any phosphate or potash
on his peas? If he takes them off, he
will certainly have taken off more of
the phosphoric acid and potash, of
which his land was probably already
deficient, and unless he applies fertil-
izers to his cotton he can not hope for
an increased crop by reason of the
rea-growth. He may to some extent
get benefit from the peas SO far as the
increase of nitrogen in the soil is con-
cerned, but while the cotton may
make ranker "weed," it will fail in
the fruiting. The peas will relieve him
from, the purchase of the most costly
part of a complete fertilizer and he
will not be compelled to buy nitrogen
at all, especially If he uses his cotton
seed as suggested. But what shall he
use, and when shall he apply the fer
tilizer? We have already remarked
that il has been found that the miner
al plant-food in the shape of phospho-
ric acid and potash give better results
when applied some time previous to
the planting Of the crop, and we know,
too, that liberal broadcast applica-
ton Of these is better, not only for the
improvement Of the land generally,
but for the crop of cotton. The expert
ence of our South Carolina friend
points to this. Few farmers realize the
short time in which fertilizers applied
directly in furrow under the plants are
available to the plant. The parts of the