REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER. II 



about to be planted. It seems to be at the present time the 

 cheapest source of nitrogen, and when the government plants 

 get to making this for the market, we may well hope that it 

 will be widely and extensively used. The idea that cyanamid 

 cannot be used in large quantities is wrong. It can be used, but 

 it cannot be used in a drill, but should be broadcast. Cyanamid 

 is made by burning the other gases out of the air and leaving 

 the nitric acid. This is done by an exceedingly hot electric 

 flame, flashing from one point to another. The resulting nitric 

 acid is held by compounding with calcium carbon. When this 

 is completed the slibstance becomes very annoying to animal 

 life of all kinds, on account of its alkaline properties, and its 

 application to the land would necessarily have to be made with 

 machinery. Cruder methods would not be satisfactory on 

 account of exposing the individual altogether too much to the 

 effects of this alkaline substance. It is time for farmers to 

 seriously consider the use of this substance as a fertilizing mate- 

 rial, and I would recommend that they purchase the chemical 

 as a chemical and at once begin to experiment with its use on 

 the various crops, even including hay. It is unsafe to use this, 

 as has been demonstrated time and again in commercial ferti- 

 lizers mixed in larger quantities than fifty pounds to a ton, 

 where the fertilizer is liable to come in contact with the seed 

 in the drill. 



POTASH. 



The abandonment or practical abandonment of the use of 

 potash for the last two years should cause the farmers to seri- 

 ously consider what that means. If crops can continually 

 be grown without the use of potash, it would be a waste of 

 money to purchase potash. It has been part of our agricultural 

 education for a long series of years, that potash was one of 

 the elements that must be supplied for crops to do their best 

 and the entire absence of potash from the soil would mean 

 that there would be no crop at all, and no vegetable life. Dur- 

 ing the past year or two, however, with the potash entirely 

 eliminated from the fertilizer, we have seen fairly good crops 

 raised. The thing that concerns us most is, that farmers may 

 get to thinking that the story about potash has been a humbug 

 and abandon the use of it in the future. Such a course would 



