The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1903-03-14
FARMER AND PLANTER.
COTTON FERTILIzING.
The Necessary Ingredients 10 Constl-
Tute . Good Cotton Fertilizer Civ
en- ThoughtfuI Consideration.

Too many planters have to fertilize
cotton with such materials as they
can get, especially if well enmeshed
In the books of the local dealer. How
ever, it seems that the interests of
the dealer are really in the line of a
good crop and consequently the quail
ity of the fertilizer they deal out to
their following deserves a careful ex-
animation. A great many fertilizers
are compounded to suit The materials
most convenient, and with but little
regarc to the actual needs of the
crocs for which same is designed.
This fertilizer formula problem is
far from being an insuperabIe one,
but it does require a little study.
For example, an average cotton
crop of 300 pounds of lint per acre
produces from the soil great deal
more than this 300 pounds lint; here
are grown also some $50 pounds Of
seed, 1000 pounds of bolls and leaves.
and about 900 pounds of stems and
roots. Now, fertilizers are used by
all these products quite as much as
other must also be made. Conse-
quently in figuring out what the crop
needs in the line of plant food, we
must take all these more or less use
less products into consideration.
For a crop such as is outlined
above, taking the whole plant growth
into consideration, the actual plant
food used amounts TO AZ pounds of
nitrogen, 40 pounds of potash and IL
pounds of phosphoric acid. A great
deal of this nitrogen may and does
come from the growth of cowpeas or
some Nant of the same class. These
plants have the power of taking the
inert nitrogen from the air and con-
verting it into such forms that is is
useful as food for plants. Perhaps
half the nitrogen needed by the cot
ton crop is obtained in this manner,
at least il should be, and we must
consider it done to figure on econom-
zeal manuring. Also the phosphoric
acid is hard to keep i'm available form
in the soil, and the fertilizer applica-
ton of this ingredient should be at
least doubled.
From this point of view, a good
cotton fertilizer should be such as to
give TO the crop per acre about rs
pounds of nitrogen, 40 pounds of pot
ash and Is pounds of available phos-
phoric acid. 1t is impossible to ex-
pect the crop to reach and assimilate
all of the fertilizer applied, in fact,
not much more than half can be
actually realized, and this, too, under
the most favorable conditions. This
is another point for thoughtful con-
sideration.
The plant food for the crop as out
lined contains, taken by itself, some
2s per cent. nitrogen, A per cent.
potash and % per cent. phosphoric
acid. Let US compare this with the
manure of the farm, which is -
course not made from cotton, but,
rather from the grains and grasses.
Such manure contains per ton about
ten pounds each of nitrogen and pot
ash and five pounds of phosphoric
acid; that is, considering the plant
food by itself, some 40 per cent. each
of nitrogen and potash, and 20 per
cent. phosphoric acid, and very little
Of this latter available at that. Cot
ton is special crop, and it is quite
evident that ordinary farmyard man
ure is not a well balanced fertilizer
for same. 1t should he fortified by
mixing with it, or using with it, both
the German potash salts and acid
phosphate. With this illustration as a
guide, it is an easy matter for a
planter to figure out the proportions
of the plant food ingredients in the
fertilizer he is asked to buy, and act
accordingly.-R. Garwood, in Texas
Farm and Ranch.