The Tupelo journal., 1905-12-01
ARMERAN PLANTER.
RAISING COTTON.
How to Fertilixe 1t Most Eco
nOmicaIly and Produce the
BEST Results.

readers whenever WI choose to write
on this extremely interesting topic,
ever if we do have to 'trample on
someone's toes" upset some of their
pet theories and speak in words of con-
demnation of some popular but IRA
tional practices). One question we are
often called ON to answ is, "What
kind of 'guano' do you use in order to
make three bales per acre." To which
We have to answer that we don't use
"guano' (so-called) at all, when we
a help it; preferring to use the chem
icals,i as acid phosphates, nitrate of
soda, cotton seed meal, and muriate
and sulphate of potash. We never use
kainit except where cotton is inclined
to rust; though lowest in price of any
of the potash salts, it is really the
most expensive to all who live in the
interior, on account of freight rates
being just as high OF it as on the more
concentrated muriate and sulphat. 1t
does not pay us, neither will it pay
anyone else, to pay freight long dis
tances on low-grade material of any
kind; kainit is no exception in this re-
spect. While on the subject of potash,
we would state for the good OF all con-
cerned that, though the muriate seems
to be the most popular. the most gen.
orally used, most often recommended
and is claimed to be the cheapest, the
sulphate has proven itself to be the
best everywhere we have tried and used
it, and we have used it freely on each
and every crop we plant.
We try to apply our phosphate and
potash in the late fall II early winter;
but, when, from any course, beyond our
control, we can not apply them then,
we then apply them as early in spring
as practicable, never postponing the
application until planting time. There
are various reasons for this practice.
each of which we believe to be good.
For lack of space, we will give but
one at this time, that is, that the FALL
IS THE RIGHT TIME to apply both
phosphate and potash, and for the SIM
pie reason that they act better and
give better results applied then than
at any other time.
We are well aware of the fact that
this practice, if universally followed,
would revolutionize the present prac-
tice in both application and time OF
purchasing same, but the fact OF the
matter IS that the farmer using these
substances ought really to keep them
on hanG-ready for immediate use
all he time; he would not then Gas
he often does now be forced to haul
them when the roads are oftentimes
practically impossible. There is really
no such thing as a fertilizer season lie.
a season in which fertilizer should be
bought and sold inpreference to any
other season of the year,. The time to
purchase is as soon as you have your
mind made up as to the kind and guam
tity required.
Where cotton is to be planted on a
pea stubble, as it will be by every
systematic farmer, and should be by
all, there will be but little need for
such heterogeneous fertilizers as stable
manure, nitrate of soda, or cotton seed
meal, neither will the so-called
"guano' or complete" fertilizer be re-
uuired to the extent it is now; but even
when planted on a pea stubble, the
Starter recommended by Col. Red
ding may be advantageously used IN
every cotton patch in the country, and
this regardless of richness or poverty
of soil: to-wit: Apply a small quantity
of soluble. or quickly available fertilz-
er, directly in the furrow with the
planting seed.
A mixture of ten pounds of nitrate OF
soda, 80 pounds of acid phosphate, and
60 pounds Cor more) of any fine, dry
material, such as rotten manure, plas-
ter of ashes, answer we'll for this
purpose for one acre. Or an applica-
ton of 100 to 200 pounds of nitrate of
soda nay be land should be, where a
pea stubble is not available) applied
to the growing cotton as soon as up
to a stand.
Cotton should follow cowpeas, and
the cowpeas should have been ferti-
Iized with 300 to 600 pounds of a bone
Of potash fertilizer analyzing about
1914. On poor, sandy land, or sandy
loan, this system will speedily assert
its superiority over other methods by
the immediate improvement of texture
and physical character Of the soil, max
inc it work loosen and mellower and
effectually preventing all tendency to
.sbake." it speedily brings it to life,
making a strictly Give" soil out OF
that was heretofore comparatively
dead; it so improves its moisture,
absorbing and MISUNDERSTANDING
capacity as to render it prac-
tically drought-proof; and by its in
crease in it's ability to absorb moisture
and to retain it i'm time of drought it
paves the way for a practice OF the in
teasive system, which later would,
without plenty of vegetable matter in
the soil, have been an impossibility.
This same vegetable matter tends to
make a ~cold-natured and wet soil, both
warmer and dryer, a soil that is too
dry and too hot, both moister and
cooler, and renders a sterile and unpro-
ductive soil vastly more productive
and it's cultivation satisfactory, pleas
ant and profitable. |
Now, while a ~judiciously systematic
rotation, in which the cOwpea finds a
place as often as every second or third
year, is actually essential as a fertility
maintaining or fertility-increasing
the really good farmer could
and should improve upon this. We re-
fer now to the sowing Of vetch or
crimson clover, or burr clover in the