The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1907-05-17
HOW MUCH FERTILIZER TO
APPLY.

The question. How much fertilizer
should be used per acre?" cannot be an
swered definitely. but only in a general
way. 1t is sometimes put in this form:
"Wh2t Is the most profitable amount that
may be applied per acre?' Neither can
the question in the amended form be
exactly and accurately answered. The
soil, its character, condition, preparation,
etc, may be well known, or comfortable
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 thar
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 a crop that
IL planted In the spring and ripens for
harvest In midsummer. The first case Is
Illustrated by oats, wheat, or other small
grain, or grass, especially when sown in
the rail- OF the year. Such a crop occu-
pies the soil during the late fall n win
ter and early ~spring-during which pc
RODS 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. 1t
has but a short period In which to devel-
op It's iowers-tassels and silks-cover-
ing but a few days. II very dry weather
snail prevail when this critical period Is
approaching, and for some time after il
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 A. -
irult in June Tor even ~earlier) and con-
tinues throughout the summer until
checked by a severe frost In November.
1t has a number Of chances"
Cotton Is therefore another ideal crop
for liberal fertilizing. A small amount
o. tertllizers applied per acre will no
doupt yield a larger percentage profit
on It's cost thar will a larger amount
To illustrates: An application of q worth
OF tertllizer per acre may cause an in
creased Yield Of cotton {at 10 cents per
pound OF the value Of IS TO s. or a profit
frequently had such results. But il does
not follow, that twice as heavy an appli-
cation viii produce twice as large re-
suits, or that three times as much would
cause three times as great an increase
IN me 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
dollars worth of fertilizer per acre may
yield an Increase in the crop OF So; but
% worth would not therefore bring an
increase Of SIS.
But careful observation has shown that
an application Of IS to Sc worth of fertil-
izers tproperly b~alanced) is a safe amount
TO apply per acre on cotton. Many farm-
ers In Georgia lave secured satisfactory
returns from an application Of so much
as 800 pounds per acre.
l 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 amour.
70 20 TO 800 pounds per acre on old up