The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1907-02-13
HOW MUCH FERTILIZER TC
APPLY

The question. How much fertilizer
should be used per acre?' cannot be an
swered definitely, but only in a general
way. It is sometimes put in this form:
may be applied per acre?" Neither can
the question in the amended form be
exactly and accurately answered. The
soil, it's character, condition, preparation,
ETC., may be well known, or controllable
factors, but we know not what the sea-
sons may be, says Hon. R. J. Redding,
Director Georgia Experiment Station, De-
partment Of Agriculture in the Virginia.
Carolina Fertilizer Almanac.
We know that some crops will bear
larger amounts of fertilizers with reason
able assurance of profitable returns than
may be expected Of other soils. A crop
that occupies the soil from the fall season
until spring or early summer, will bear
heavier fertilizing than will crop that
is planted in the spring and ripens for
illustrated by oats. wheat, or other small
grain, or grass, especially when sown In
the fall Of the year. Such a crop occu-
pies the soil during the late fall and WIN
riods the rains are usually abundant
ripening for harvest in late spring. or
very early summer before the burning
summer heat and possible drouths OF
June and July. Oats and wheat therefore
are ideal crops for liberal fertilizing.
Corn is rather an uncertain crop on the
ordinary dry uplands Of the South. It
has but short period in which to devel-
op it's fowers-tassels and silks-cover-
ing but few days. II very dry weather
shall prevail when this critical period IS
approaching, and for some time after It
is passed, the crops may prove a greater
or less failure There can be no second
effort, no second period Of blooming.
1t is different in the case Of cotton
which commences to bloom and make
%,,,;f -, INV or1i orN
tinues throughout the summer until
checked by a severe frost in November.
1t has number Of ''ctances."
Cotton is therefore ANOTHER ideal crop
Of fertilizers applied per acre will no
doubt yield larger percentage profit
on it's cost than will a larger amount.
To illustrate: An application of 81 worth
Of fertilizer per acre may cause an In
creased yield Of cotton (at 10 cents per
pound) Of the value Of s6 to So, or profit
of 200 to 300 per cent on its cost. I have
frequently had such results. But it does
not follow that twice as heavy an appli-
cation will produce twice as large re-
suits, or that three times as much would
cause three times as great an increase
in the yield. In other words. the rate
Of increase in the yield Of cotton will
not be in proportion to the increase In
the amount Of fertilizers applied. Two
dollaSS' worth Of fertilizer per acre may
yield an increase in the crop of s6; but
s6 worth would not therefore bring an
increase of SIS.
But careful observation has shown that
an application OF S. to s6 worth of fertil-
izers (properly balanceD is a safe amount
to apply per acre on cotton. Many farm
ers in Georgia have secured satisfactory
returns from an applfca tinn Of: so much
as 500 pounds per acre,
I think 600 pounds a perfectly safe limit
on upland in fairly good condition, we'll
prepared and properly cultivated in cot
ton. For corn, would limit the amount
to 200 to 800 pounds per acre on old up
lands.