The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-03-01


 All these things seem to be entirely new. How strangel
 Cost of Producing Cotton.
 Well, | have been asking questions, too, and I have gone at the farmers In every meeting that l have held on this outing this way Nov, you fellows have been holding meetings all winter, passing great many resolutions and among other things you have been declaring that you cannot produce cotton for G. : or cents, or for less than 10 cents per pound. Now, how do you know this? If there Is farmer present who knows or can tell what 1t costs him to produce a bale of cotton and place it on the market, please hold up your hand, for 1 want to know" And never yet has a hand gone up.
 MT. Kilgore of Jasper, Ala, is the only farmer I have met this winter who was able to give an intelligent account of his farm operations, and could say what 1t cost him to produce his crops. Yet some of the farmers who fail to answer these simple questions can tell how the United States government should be run and perhaps how to build the navy.
 Now, l am not going to claim that l am very much smarter than others, yet I am glad that 1 have been able to answer all these questions to the satls- faction of the questioner and right here l want to say that what l do know along these lines I learned largely in the farm CTS open door institutes, where every thing was run on the broad-gauge plan. A hint here is all I need give. Broad farmers institutes for educational pur- poses are what the country needs most of all That farmers and their interests need protection there Is no question, but this protection must come largely from education, or, In other words, education should precede protection. l know of no better method than the farmers institute "a free course of winter lectures-where every one may come In and take an act i've part. l find many farmers who are going to engage in growing crops that they have never had any experience in growing and so need much information in order to succeed and make these crops profitable. Only a few days ago 1 was holding a meeting with newly organ ized truck growers association. This as- sociation had just placed an order for 1400 bushels of seed Irish potatoes The members of this association are all cot ton farmers and never had any experi- ence in commercial potato growing. They are to use land that has to be taken out of cotton growing, and so have to use some form of fertilizers, and found that
 
 grow a fine crop of potatoes by the use of cotton seed meal alone as fertilizer. Now cotton seed meal consists almost exclusively of one element of fertilizer, namely nitrogen. Nitrogen produces mostly foliage, leaves and stalk, and as it is the tubers which the grower expects to sell, he should use a fertilizer which will produce potatoes instead of tops. Nj trogen is essential in the production of potatoes, but 1t must be balanced up with other elements-phosphor acid and potash. The potato is a greedy feeder of potash.
 So to attempt to grow crop of early potatoes alone on nitrogen VIII result in all tops and but few, if any, merchant able tubers.
 Cotton Seed Meal Dangerous.
 Then again, cotton seed meal in the hands of inexperienced beginners is dan gerous, for unless much caution Is used it will heat and cause the seed to rot. It Is not best to use cotton seed meal alone for nitrogen for potatoes. for the reason that it is too slow in it's action. It would be better to use some nitrate of soda in connection with the cotton seed meal. We would recommend at least one-thlrd of the nitrate of soda, or say POO pounds of cotton seed meal and 100 pounds of ni- trate of soda; 300 pounds of acid phos- phate and 100 pounds of muriate of pot ash--using from 400 to 12O0 pounds per acre, according to the requirements of the soil.
 For further information. would sug-