. Cyclopedia of farm crops : a popular survey of crops and crop-making methods in the United States and Canada. Agriculture -- Canada; Agriculture -- United States; Farm produce -- Canada; Farm produce -- United States. 50 COTTON COTTON Barnyard manures also serve an important purpose in iniprovinjr cotton lands. They supply a small quantity of plant-fotxl and a considerable quantity of orjjanic matter which opens the soil and im- proves its mechanical condition. They are also supposed to act on the constituents of the soil in a chemical way, converting the plant-food into an available conditi
. Cyclopedia of farm crops : a popular survey of crops and crop-making methods in the United States and Canada. Agriculture -- Canada; Agriculture -- United States; Farm produce -- Canada; Farm produce -- United States. 50 COTTON COTTON Barnyard manures also serve an important purpose in iniprovinjr cotton lands. They supply a small quantity of plant-fotxl and a considerable quantity of orjjanic matter which opens the soil and im- proves its mechanical condition. They are also supposed to act on the constituents of the soil in a chemical way, converting the plant-food into an available condition for the use of the plants. Probably one of the cheapest and most effective means of soil-improvement is crop rotation. Cotton would never exhaust the land if washing could be entirely prevented and the seeds were returned to it each year, as the lint cotton, the part necessarily removed, contains only a very small quantity of plant-food; but unfortunately in many cases the seeds are also removed without substituting their equivalent in other manures. This is a source of great loss, for the seed contains large quantities of the most valuable elements of plant-food. Sur- face washing is also a source of great impover- ishment to cotton-fields, as the nature of the crop necessitates a method of tillage which causes an extreme surface exposure of the soil for practically every month in the year, thereby intensifying the bad effects of heavy rains. During heavy rains the water is quickly shed into the middles of the rows, where it is confined to a very small part of the available area and has great power to wash away the fine soil as it runs off. Unless these conditions can be counterbalanced, cotton-fields will gradually grow poor. This can be accomplished in a large measure by planting from time to time leguminous crops which enrich the soil by collecting nitrogen from the air, and which occupy a larger part of the surface and necessitate a minimum surface exposure of the soil,
Size: 1959px × 1276px
Photo credit: © Central Historic Books / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookidcyclopediaoffarm00bailuoftbookyear1922
