Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1916-05-23

CONTAINS ALL FERTILIzrNa ELEMENTs-
BEST PRACTICE IS TO USE AS FEED
AND RETURN MANURE TO SOIL.

At the present time, when potash II
the form Of salts is practically unobtain
able and when both nitrogen and acit
phosphate have advanced In price be
cause of the use OF nitrates and sulphur
ic acid for munition purposes, cotton
seed meal, which carries oil three OF tht
fertilizing elements, becomes OF grea'
importance. In recent years immense
quantities OF this material have gone
into fertilizers, approximately 1000, ,0Ot
tons having been so used In 1918.
Cottonseed meal, the residue after the
oil has been extracted from oottonseed
is . dry, yellowish powder, having ex'
cellent mechanical properties for fertiliz
er mixtures, and contains about 6.6 pei
cent Of nitrogen, Q percent OF phosphoric
acid, and Q percent of potash. It 10,
therefore, according to specialists OF the
department, primarily heterogeneous fer.
tilizer, but under present conditions its
potash content is highly important and
is decided factor In determining the
price at which the material Is sold.
In practice, cottonseed meal should be
mixed with other Ingredients. Most OF
the formulas heretofore published have
advocated various proportions Of acid
phosphate and muriate Of potash In COM
bination with cottonseed meal. Muriate
Of potash is to all intents and purposes
unobtainable this year and must be
omitted from present consideration. II
1000 pounds of cottonseed meal and
1000 pounds of acid phosphate are mix.
ed, however, q ton OF material results
which contains about 1S0 pounds of
phosphoric acid, 65 pounds of nitrogen,
and 20 pounds of potash. This is about
8 percent phosphoric acid, 8 25 percent
nitrogen, and percent potash, and
makes very satisfactory mixture for
many soils where field crops are to be
grown. For trucking and gardening,
present practice demands higher con-
tent of potash, and the mixture may be
supplemented by the application of un-
leached wood ashes If obtainable.
Nitrogen in cottouseed meal Is not SO
quickly available a. when applied in the
form of nitrate, but on the other hand,
Is not 80 likely to be leached out In
times of heavy rainfall. In light sandy
soils where teaching is rapid the use of
organic material such az cottonseed
meal is to be preferred In supplying the
necessary nitrogen. Decay Of the organ.
ic material hberates the nitrogen grad.
ually and there Is much less danger of
loss than is the case when soluble salts,
like Chilean nitrate, are used.
Most Of the mineral Ingredients In
cottonseed meal are recovered In the ma
nure II the material is used "a q cattle
feed. The most economical use Of cot
tonseed meal is, therefore, to feed 1t and
apply the manure to the land. In this
way the material is- made to serve
double purpose. European dairymen
have for some years bought large quanti-
ties of American cottonseed meal for feed
ing purposes. As the livestock indus.
try develops In our Southern states,
doubtless an increasing amount of this
will be diverted from the fertil-
izer trade for use as stock feed, and at
present wherever possible the practice
Of feeding the meal and using the ma.
nure for fertilizer should be followed,
rather than the direct application OF the
cottonseed meal to the land.