The progressive farmer and the cotton plant., 1905-04-18
TEST YOUR OWN SOIL.

himself The Experiment Station can make tests
o,d General suggestions, but it can say what each
;ndividual farmer needs only in general way.
While the objection can be made that the farmer
has not the time nor the means nor the ap-
r1onces for weighing out different materials and
weighing the harvested crops, yet he can do some
thing along this line that observation may show
which is the best practice For instance, the
farmer can ordinarily tell from observation
whether deep cultivation is superior to shallow
cultivation and level cultivation, and in the same
vav he can tell from observation and such esti-
mates as can be readily made in harvesting that
will throw much light on individual cases. Of
course in many cases there will be marked differ
ence so much so that the scales will not be neces-
sary to show where they are. Of course, the only
way to make test is to make it accurately. This
means that mere guess work should not be in
dulged in but it also means that if you have not
a pair of scales. you may make estimates. 1t will
serve your purpose, for instance to know that one
plot produces ten baskets of corn and another
eight So the basket may take the place of the
scales.
In the purchase of our chemicals we ordinarily
secure three kinds: namely, nitrogen, phosphorus
and potassium, because these the ones ordi-
narily deficient in the average depleted soil. 1t
is not much trouble to make the test according
to the following plan which is simple in every
sense of the word: After the blowing is done and
the narrowing has been finished and you are al
ready to put out the cotton crop, IS 1T not
practical to lay off five small plots in part
of the field that can be taken as typical of that
field? These plats can be any size that you
choose to make them, from one-tenth to an acre.
On the first Flat put no fertilizer at all; on the
second plat add two hundred and fifty pounds of
acid phosphate one hundred pounds of kainit,
and forty pounds of nitrate soda Is pounds of
cotton-seed meal; on the third plat add two hun
dred and fifty pounds of acid phosphate; on the
fourth plat add one hundred pounds of kainit,
and on the fifth Flat add forty pounds of nitrate
soda or seventy-fve pounds of cotton-seed meal.
These quantities refer to acre plats, and if you
lay off one-half acre plats use one-haf of the
quantity suggested here and for one-tenth of an
acre plat use one-tenth of the quantity suggested
here. There is some objection to using the cot
ton-seed meal in the test because it also contains
phosphorus and potassium, and that would have to
be considered in making completely accurate
test For that reason have suggested nitrate of
soda But nitrate of soda is not always available,
and for practical purposes the cotton seed meal
will do. This test will show what element or ele-
ments are deficient. 1t may show that you have
been using some element that is not needed for
Your soil or it may show that some element that
is needed in your soil has not been furnished
After this test has been made, and you have
obtained such information it will give you, the
next year you continue the test by finding
that greater smaller quantities of the neces-
sary elements will make differences in the yield.
II every farmer would test his farm in this way
II would do more toward solving the fertilizer
question for each Individual farm than almost