The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1899-11-15
PREPARING FOR NEXT YEARS
COTTON.
Correspondence Cotton Plant.

increase in the cultivation of the COZ
pea. Fewer fields are to be see
"restingn in the old way by GROWN
up with weeds for future bruw-sweat
inus, but instead the farmers are fas
learning that the best rest for the lam
is to keep it in a crop that will shad
and protect the soil and gather fertilit
for succeeding crops far faster thar
the natural growth. Wide areas ar
now in peas that bore crop Of small
grain, and the "Clover of the South
is covering fields that never befor,
grew it. Many of these fields alc in
tended for the cotton crop of mex
year, and as a matter of course til,
owners are thinking how best to us,
the pea clop. II they have taken ou
advice, so often given in the press, til,
peas have had a good dose Of phos
phoric acid and potash in somt form
and where this Is the case the course
is plain and the cotton crop can be
grown at the smallest cost if the owner
simply adds the seed from this years
crop to the land. One of the most
thoughtful farmers in South Carolina
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 de.
slroy termination, gave him excellent
results when applied as he uses them.
He found that when a mass of seed or
other bulky manure was applied di-
rectly in the furrow under the cotton,
there was difficulty in getting good
stand of the cotton. He found also
that while the seed were valuable
fertilizer, they were slow in becoming
available to the plant as food. He
therefore adopted the plan OF opening
II furrow midway between the beds for
the cotton, and there burylng the seed.
BY the time the cotton had developed
to the point OF making the bloom and
fruit it had found the seed, which by
that time had dccaycd to an extent
sufficient to enable them to yield up
their plant food, and 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 purchas ed
fertilizers TO the cotton. We have
said that where the pea crop of this
year has been well supplied with phos-
phoric acid and potash there is better
chance for next years cotton. Expe-
riencc has shown that an Applicant IN
of the potasslc Fertilizers especially,
some months before the planting, will
show from them better results than
from direct application at the plant
ing time. And not only this but theil
application to the pea crop will give a
heavier crop Of forage. There is
nothing. that the cotton farmer needs
more than plenty of forage and plenty
of cattle to feed it to. The use of the
entire growth Of peas as a manure di-
rect will undoubtedly show a greater
effect on the succeeding crop than the
cutting off of the growth. But the
cutting and curing of the crop as hay,
and the feeding of this hay to cattle,
with the careful saving of the manure
will do more for the farm and farmer
than the burying of a crop worth $50 per
acre as food, three.iourths of which
value can be recovered IN the manure
made flom the feeding. Another fact
in connection with the using of the
whole growth for the cotton crop is
that it may give an excess of nitrogen
and rank and long limbed growth,
and late crop. The true way to use
the pea crop preceding cotton crop is
TO cut ? I'D cure the vines as hay, feed
them to stock and return to the land
the manure thus made. 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 fertilizers to his cotton he
cannot hope for an increased crop by
reason of the pe' growth. He may TO
some extent get benefit from the peas
so far as the increase of nitrogen in
the soil is concerned, bit while the
cotton may make ranker "weed" it
will fail in the fruiling. The peas will re-
lieve 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
tilizer2 We have already remarked
that it has been found that the mineral
plant food in the shape of phosphoric
acid and potash give better results
when applied some time previous to the
planting of the crop, and we know too
that liberal broadcast application of
these is better, not only tor the inn
provement 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 ap-
Piled directly in the furrow under the
plants are available to the plant. The
part of the roots of any plant which
are engaged in collecting food are neal
the extreme tip of the small rootlets
aud when these get beyond the area in
which the food was applied and begir
to forage in poorer soil, deterioration
in the growth and fruiting must result
Hence we have become fully satisfied
that even for the cotton crop a broad
cast application is best in the final re
suits ON the crop. We would lik,
some of our friends who have a pc,
stubble to go into cotton next year t,
try the simple experiment. of applying
this fall BROADCAST on part of the stub
BILE all the phosphate and potash the,