Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1911-07-19
Article From Progressive Far.
mer Concerning Late Ap-
plication of Fertilizers.

There seems to be a general in
terest in making a second applica-
ton of fertilizer during the growth
of corn and cotton, and many seem
to think that in making this appli-
cation they must throw the soil
away from the rows and put the fer
tilizer. down alongside the plants
AMI then throw the soil back.
y. All this is totally needless. In
fact, the added fertilizer will do
less good right alongside the plants
than it will in the center of the
middle spaces, for by this time the
roots of cotton or corn are feeding
in the mlddles, and the root hairs
that get food from the soil are
nearly all of them out there and
not near the stalks.
Then, too, the turning of the soil
away and back will surely damage
the plants, and it is not at all nee
essary to bury the fertilizer with a
plow. There would be no need for
the second application to cotton if
in the planting there had been plen-
ty used, and as much applied broad
cast as was put under the rows.
This is especially true of the phos-
phoric acid and potash, which are
never lost to the soil, but always
stay there till used by plant roots.
Where the cotton has not good col
or and does not grow thriftily, a
dressing of nitrate of soda down to
the rows at blooming time will help
greatly. But remember that the
place for it is in the middles where
the feeding roots are and not right
alongside the stems of the plants.
Few people fully understand how
roots spread and feed. Outside OF
my garden fence on the street are
some young Norway maple trees.
The heads of these trees are not yet
over six feet across, but / find that
the roots L We crossed under the
sidewalk and are foraging in the
well manured soil of my garden
fifteen or more feet away. And you
will find that the feeding roots of
cotton by the time it is foot high
are all but in the middles.
One Of the most successful cotton
farmers l know never puts anything
under the cotton but fertilizer, but
he runs burrows down the middles
and puts all the manure he has in
the furrow, and by fruiting time the
roots have found it and are making
good use of it at critical stage in
their growth. l once saw good
farmer in South Carolina cleaning
out his stables and hauling and
spreading the manure between the
cotton rows in August. He had no
trouble in getting stand of GRIM
son clover sown among that cotton.
The one crop of the South where
heavy applications of high-grade
fertilizers will pay better than on
almost any other crop is the cotton
crop, and yet there are thousands
who imagine they are fertilizing
cotton when they are using only
200 pounds an acre of the poor
2-s-2 in the furrows. The low
grade fertilizer is poor enough with
out being, stingy with it and it
might do better if another 200
pounds were spread down the mid
dies at planting time.
But it is far better to be liberal
with the cotton and to use high
grade article, at least so far as the
nitrogen and phosphoric acid are
concerned. There are sections iii the
lower Mississippi Valley where the
experiment stations have decided
that potash is not needed in a fer
f'lizer. But in most of the cotton
country of the South Atlantic Coast
it is important to have a due per-
centage of potash in the fertilizer.
The man who puts $50 to 800
pounds of a good high-grade ferti-
lizer under the cotton and as much
more broadcast at planting time,
will never need to apply a side
dressing in the summer. The fever
for side-dressing has grown out of
the neglect to fertilize right at the
start.
So long as you go through shall
low and level you can keep the cul-
tivators running in cotton and corn
as long as you can get through han
dily. If you think that you must
bank up the earth to corn or cotton
when laying-by, try portion per-
fectly level and shallowly cultivat-
ed and see what the difference is in
fbo o~o,,