A field experiment of controlled release fertilizers (CRFs) on cotton was carried out to study effects of application rate of CRFs on cotton (Guokang 12) growth and soil fertility with the application of common compound fertilizers (CCFs) as control for comparison. Results show that CRFs significantly increased plant height, culm diameter, leave area and the numbers of fruit spurs and bolls of the cotton. When N 75 kg hm^-2 and N 150 kg hm^-2 was applied, yield of the cotton in Treatment CRFs was 18.9% and 13.6% higher than that in CK (CCFs), respectively. Besides, CRFs also significantly increased the content of NO₃⁻-N in the soil of the 0~40 cm soil layer, but didn’t affect much the content of NH NO₄ -N in the soil. No significant difference was observed in content of available P and K between Treatments CRFs and CCFs.