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COTTON SEED HULL ASHES.

This is an important source of potash for the South. The hulls are separated from the seed at the oil mills, and are usually burned for fuel, supplying all of the power required for the machinery. As was to be supposed, being a part of the seed, these hulls have a rich ash. The cotton seed of the ordinary season is divided into two equal parts at the mills. The kernels, forming one-half, are crushed and produce cake and oil. The hulls yield from 2 to 2 per cent. of crude ash when burned. An experiment made in 1885 gave, after removal from the seed of 22 lbs. more of lint,

Hulls...........

Ash, crude..........

.49.9 per cent. of the seed.
2.53"
of these hulls.

66

Or, we may count each ton of cotton seed as containing 25 lbs. of crude ash. As burned under the boilers, this ash is ordinarily mixed with more or less char, earth, lime, &c., from the brick work, but may be obtained almost perfectly free from these things, if properly managed.

This ash is just beginning to receive the attention it so richly merits. The commercial ash varies much in potash, according to the care taken in preparing it. But it has never to our knowledge brought the price which it would seem to be entitled to in proportion to muriate of potash. With its 3 per cent. of phosphoric acid, good ash, like the above, ought to be worth fully as much as muriate.

ANALYSES OF COTTON SEED HULL ASHES.

3579. Burned at the mill of the Oliver Oil Company, Charlotte, and sent by Raleigh Oil Mill and Fertilizer Co., Raleigh, N. C.

3678. Burned at the Oil Mill in Charleston, S. C., and sample sent by Raleigh Oil Mill and Fertilizer Co.

3855. Burned at New Bern Oil Mill, and sample sent by T. T. Oliver, Pine Level, N. C.

4227. Burned at mill of Oliver Oil Co., at Charlotte, N. C., and sample sent by them.

No. Mill Located at

SENDER'S NAME AND ADDRESS.

POTASH.

PHOSPH.
ACID.

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Charlotte Raleigh Oil Mill and Fertilizer Co., Raleigh, N. C. 20.20

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3932. Porpoise Scrap, sent by John Wainwright, Hatteras. Sample was sun-dried, and said to retain about the natural proportion of meat and bone. 3578. Ground Fish Scrap, sent by Durham Fertilizer Co., Durham. 3585. Dry Fish Scrap, Royster & Nash, Tarboro.

4247. Ground Fish Scrap, F. S. Royster, Tarboro.

3577. Ground Tankage, Durham Fertilizer Co., Durham, N. C.

3581. Mixture of Blood and Meat, prepared by P. White & Sons, New York, and sample sent by C. W. Mitchell, Winton.

4228. Dried Blood, sent by F. S. Royster, Tarboro.

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3586. Cotton Seed Meal, sent by Royster & Nash, Tarboro.

3838. Cotton Seed Meal, ground by Raleigh Oil Mill and Fertilizer Co. 3873. Cotton Seed Meal, sent by Nitrogen Committee of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists.

4206. Cotton Seed Meal, ground by Raleigh Oil Mill and Fertilizer Co.

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NOTE.-4150. A sample of peat, sent by Mr. John Y. Stinson, Raleigh, contained 0.64 per cent. of nitrogen, equivalent to 0.78 per cent. of ammonia.

HOW TO PREPARE FARM MANURES.

In making up the manure for a crop, the farmer should be guided chiefly by two considerations. He must ascertain wherein the soil, upon which the crop is to be grown, is deficient, and he must know the requirements of the plant which is to live upon it. These matters are best ascertained by experiment, as will be explained further on. We will suppose that the farmer has determined what he is going to use, and how much per acre, and will endeavor to explain how different fertilizing materials are to be combined and prepared.

There are two distinct cases. In the one case, the plant food of the materials to be used is already in sufficiently available form, and the different ingredients need only to be well mixed in the proper proportions. In the other case, some of the materials need to be changed before they are put in the soil, and must be composted, or rotted. We will illustrate the method which will have to be used in each case by an example:

First. We will suppose that the materials do not need to be composted, but only mixed. Let us illustrate with the case of a cotton manure. We will suppose that it is a piece of poor, sandy land, upon which pine was the original growth, that it is desired to manure. The planter has ascertained by actual trials upon this land that he must supply a little of all the chief elements of plant food in order to make a paying crop. His experience teaches

him that the most economical application is a manure that will enable him to apply conveniently 25 pounds of phosphoric acid, 5 pounds of ammonia and 6 pounds of potash per acre, and that it is an advantage to have a part of his ammonia in a form quickly available for the first demands of the plants, with a part more slowly available. He must take care, therefore, to mix the ingredients in these proportions.

Now to get the materials. The farmer looks around him to see where he can get them to best advantage. He has at home some mixed wood ashes, which have been exposed in part. He can get a lot of damaged cotton seed meal, and he sends to a distance and gets some dissolved phosphate rock, sulphate of ammonia and kainite. We will regard the ashes as containing four per cent. of potash and six per cent. of phosphoric acid, and will suppose the damaged cotton seed meal contains six per cent. of ammonia. The dissolved phosphate rock will give twelve per cent. of available phosphoric acid, the sulphate of ammonia twenty-five per cent. of potash. To get the desired amounts of phosphoric acid, ammonia and potash per acre, he must use the following amounts of each material:

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The ingredients are now to be mixed in these proportions. A thorough mixing is something not as easily accomplished as one may think. This is all-important in order that each individual little rootlet may find within its reach all of the different agents whose good effects depend partly upon their simultaneous presence.

As a rule, chemical manures must be kept in a dry place. We will select a smooth place under a shed as our mixing floor, and,

having crushed all lumps, will sprinkle down in this case, first a layer of ashes, then a layer of cotton seed meal with a little sulphate of ammonia and kainite, in the proportions decided upon, a layer of ashes, &c., until the materials are exhausted. The mass is then to be shoveled together, first into numerous little heaps, then into larger ones, until finally it is all brought together into one large pile. It would be very well now to let this heap lie a few weeks. If the materials are at all moist the soluble salts will be diffused through the insoluble materials and a more thorough mixing thus accomplished. When the materials are very dry it will be necessary to sprinkle the layers, as put down, with enough water to moisten them without causing the heap to drip. When the manure is taken up, it should be passed through a sieve and all lumps crushed. It is then ready to be put upon the land.

HOW TO COMPOST MANURES.

Second. Some materials must be composted to render their constituents more readily available to plants. The seeds of grasses, weeds, &c., in the litter must be killed. The manner of managing the compost differs so much with the different materials which enter into it that it is almost impossible to give any general directions on the subject.

We will have to take an example here, also, and suppose that it is desired to compost cotton seed with stable manure, and to combine with them enough bone and muriate of potash to make a manure for corn.

Rotted stable manure contains more soluble plant food and less water and insoluble mineral and vegetable matter than fresh. The best conditions for the rotting of stable manure are moisture and exclusion of air. On the one hand the heap should not be leached by the rain, and on the other it ought not to get dry or be open to the too free circulation of air.

We prefer a cement floor, or a tightly laid wooden floor, sloping from all sides to the centre, upon which to build the heap. This may well be under a roof, and there may be a covered

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