The Wilmington Morning Star

Placement of fertilizer not only greatly affected final yields but it also had a marked effect on the number of plants. A count of cotton plants one week before chopping showed that the plots in which the fertilizer was placed by either of the band methods to have twice as many plants as those plots with the fertilizer beneath the seed. "At harvest this ratio still held," the report said.

The chief effect of placement of fertilizer on stands is related to the amounts of soluble salts in the root zone. Measurements of the amount of soluble salts in the root zone at chopping time showed in the "under-the-seed" placement there were 50 per cent more soluble salts present than in either of the other two treatments.

Fertilizers containing both low and high amounts of soluble salts were tested in the experiments. One week before chopping, 35 per cent more plants had emerged in the rows receiving low-salt fertilizers.

In 1943 there was little difference in the yields of cotton from the fertilizers containing low and high amounts of soluble salts.

In sidedressing cotton, the amount of nitrogen was found to be more important than its source. Sixteen pounds of nitrogen, used as a sidedressing, increased cotton yields on Norfolk sand, Norfolk sandy loam, and Marlboro fine sandy loam in the Coastal Plain.

On the first two soil types, ammonium nitrate and the nitrogen solution produced somewhat higher yields than did nitrate of soda.

"A possible explanation is that the heavy rains falling in June and early July, 1943, leached out the greater portion of the nitrogen supplied as nitrate of soda," the report states. "On the other hand, part of the nitrogen in ammonium nitrate and in the nitrogen solution was in the ammonia form and was thus resistant to leaching."

On the Marlboro fine sandy loam there were no appreciable differences between the sources of nitrogen. On all soil types in the Coastal Plain 32 pounds of nitrogen side-dressed gave a small increase in yield of seed cotton over the 16 pounds.

In the Piedmont section, 16 pounds of nitrogen sidedressed gave an increase in yield on the Alamance silt loam in Union county. The source of nitrogen did not materially influence the yield, according to the report. There was no response on Davidson clay loam or on Appling sandy loam in Davie county.