Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-02-27
DESTROYING RABBITS
AND PROTECTING TREES

rial than is used on many Georgia
farms. For Irish potatoes you will find
about a 1O-4-1O desirable. and for corn
about a 1916. These formulas should
be used at the rate of 500 TO 1000
pounds per acre. and you will probably
find il advisable with both crops 10
use about two side applications. Put
say 500 pounds under the drill row at
the time Of planting. and then 500 and
goo pounds respectively in side applica-
tions as the season advances. You
have a type of land which can only lie
built up by adopting a crop rotation ana
turning under leguminOus crops in the
absence Of a sufficient number of live
stock to supply an abundance of yard ma
nure. You should, therefore. system1-
tie your effort with this end in view,
for If you do so you can increase the
fertility Of your land and the yield per
acre from year to year. In the absence
Of such a practice YOU will find your
self resorting to the use of more and
more fertilizer with less and less salts
factory returns.
SPECIALIZED FERTILIZER FORMU-
LAS FOR ALABAMA.
II. r. o., Thorsby, Ala, writes: l
have a formula about which l wish
some information. 1 used is per cent
acid phosphate. per cent cotton see1
meal and kainit. IL per cent potash last
year. Here of late am under the opin-
ion that if 1 put enough acid, nitrogen
and potash to make il balance, / VIII
have the fertilizers. My plan is to take
1000 pounds Of 16 per cent acid phos-
phate. 1000 pounds of per cent cotton
seed meal and 700 pounds of kainit. and
mix we'll This gives 400 pounds. My
intention is to use this 200 pounds
.
pounds. / intend to use some nitrate
of soda and muriate of potash later
alongside the drill row, or as a top
dressing
AS you do not state the proportion in
which the constituents used last year
were mixed. il is impossible to determine
the percentage composition of the for
mula applied. If this formula gave Won
good results, however, there is no rea-
son why you should change ii material
" this year. Where one does not add
any vegetable matter TO the soil, and
therefore, does not improve its mechan-
ical or physical condition, an applica-
ton OF little more fertilizer will like
ly prove advisable This would seem
to be a contradiction of the advice for
merly given, but of course. one. can IN
crease the application of fertilizer TO a
given soil for a few years in the alb
sence of vegetable matter. The trouble
is that most of our lands in the south
have already reached the point where
additional applications of fertilizer do
not prove anything like as profitable as
they would were the application made
in association with the use of consid-
cradle quantities OF vegetable matter.
There is distinction here which should
be clearly and carefully kept in mind,
and this statement applies. of course,
chiefly to lands which are relatively new
and contain rather above the average
amount OF plant food and have been
farmed with some system of discTe-
ton. A mixture such as you propose
would contain per 400 pounds about
$50 pounds of available phOsphoric acid,
20 pounds of available nitrogen, and 80
pounds Of available potash. These fig
ures are based on the supposition that
the cotton seed meal contain per cent
Of nitrogen. Figuring out the percent
age composition on the basis of 1000
pounds as suggested in your communi-
cation, the formula would be about 9
per cent of phosphoric acid, S.5 per cent
OF nitrogen and 40 per cent of potash.
This would be a very good formula
foE corn or cotton on most soils. This
formula should be used at the rate OF
500 pounds and upwards per acre, larg-
er amounts being used If you are in po-
sition to increase the supply of vegeIa-
BILE matter in the land. You need not
hesitate to use this formula for it is a
good one. and II you can prepare It
more economically than you can pur-