BULLETIN 153.] LFEBRUARY, 1907 



Ontario Department of Agriculture 



ONTARIO AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 

 FERILIZERS AND THEIR USE 



By R. Harcourt, Professor of Chemistry. 



INTRODUCTION. 



On our comparatively new lands, and in general farm practice where 

 a judicious rotation of crops is followed, and where grain is fed on the 

 farm and the manure properly cared for, it may not be necessary to use 

 commercial fertilizers ; but where the nature of the crops grown prevents 

 rotation, and where very little farmyard manure is produced, they may 

 be required. More and more each year it is found that the increased cost 

 of production and the consequent need of producing maximum crops, and 

 the growing demands of the larger towns and cities for garden and fruit 

 products of high quality, are causing market gardeners and fruit growers 

 to consider seriously the advisability of using some form of fertilizer. 

 This has created a demand for information concerning these substances 

 which it has not been easy to fill ; for experience has shown that the 

 farmer must posses a wide knowledge of plants, soils and the fertilizers 

 themselves before he can properly use them. 



To intelligently and economically use fertilizers, it is essential that 

 the farmer understand the needs of the crops, their power to gather the 

 essential plant food constituents from the soil, and the purpose of their 

 growth, i.e., whether the object is to produce an immature plant for 

 early market, or whether maturity is required. He must also know 

 something about the available supply of plant food in the soil and the 

 nature of the fertilizer being used. These fertilizers are expensive, and 

 unless they are intelligently applied in conjunction with very thorough 

 cultivation they will not give their best results. They cannot take the 

 place of cultivation ; for they are food materials, and can only aid the 

 growth of the plant as they are absorbed by the roots, and these cannot 

 develop fully in a poorly cultivated soil. 



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