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SOIL SURVEY OF ROBERTSON COUNTY, TEXAS. 19 an experimental way for cotton and Irish potatoes. The results were such that a much greater quantity was used this year. For cotton, applications of ordinary grades of complete fertilizers have been made at the rate of 200 pounds to the acre, distributed in the water furrow and bedded in. Irish potatoes seem especially helped by the use of cotton-seed meal. Fertilizers have found but little favor in the fertile Brazos bottoms. As yet farmers are not well acquainted with the nature of fertilizers or the cheaper and better methods of home mixing of fertilizer ingredients. However, it seems that commercial manures are destined to come into general use in the uplands, as has been the case usually in the older States whenever once tried. The use of this class of fertilizers to the exclusion of organic manures, like barnyard manure or cowpeas, is not to be recommended. The effect of commercial fertilizers used alone is neither as good nor as lasting as when used in connection with some form of vegetable manure. Cotton seed deadened by heating is coming into use in those sections where distance to market prohibits the economical sale or exchange of seed for cotton-seed meal. Very good results have been had with both cotton and corn by the application of 1,000 pounds of seed as fertilizer to the acre. Barnyard manure has never been credited with its true worth, for the reason that few farmers have used it or properly handled it. This form of manure, protected from the weather, especially from the leaching of rains and from overheating, is the best manure that can be used on the soils of the area. It adds vegetable matter which is badly needed and is the best form of fertilizer for correcting the mechanical condition of the soil and starting desirable fermentation in the soil. Farmers fear the use of barnyard manure wherever Bermuda or Johnson grass has been fed, and consequently much good stable and stockyard manure goes to waste. Although new varieties of cotton were widely sought after and used in attempts to grow an early crop so as to forestall the boll weevil, far too little attention has been given the matter of seed selection in general. Some of the varieties of cotton grown show an inherent tendency to produce sparingly of small-sized bolls, while others go largely to stalk. Farmers should exert every effort to secure better varieties by selecting seed from the best home-grown plants. It is reasonable to assume that the corn yield could be materially increased by selection of seed from the more virile plants. The seed should be taken from the best all-around plants on a particular soil and planted on the same soil and not indiscriminately on all soils. This method of selection for both cotton and corn should be thoroughly tried, at least, in an attempt to improve varieties. It is known the cotton bred upon a certain soil may lose its improve-' ments when grown on a soil with very different characteristics.