ACTION OF CHILI SALTPETRE. 323 



thousand tons, of which about one-fourth is consumed in 

 Germany. 



As an intelligent review of the results obtained elsewhere 

 after some years of actual trials in the field cannot be with- 

 out interest to farmers, considering our present early stage 

 of experimental inquiry into the merits of the nitrate of 

 soda for the production of crops, I introduce here a short 

 abstract from an interesting paper recently published, " On 

 the Proper Use of Chemical Fertilizers," by Professor M. 

 Maercker of Halle, Germany, adding such statements as 

 may aid in a due appreciation of the subject under discus- 

 sion. The nitric-acid-containing salines excel in rapidity 

 and intensity of action all other nitrogen-containing sub- 

 stances. The Chili saltpetre assists in a high degree in 

 the diffusion of potassa and phosphoric acid throughout the 

 entire body of the soil. Its application as a fertilizer tends 

 to produce larger plants with a more extended root-system, 

 and causes thus an increased consumption of all the prin- 

 cipal articles of plant-food. As no single article of plant- 

 food can for any length of time cause good crops^ it becomes 

 an essential condition for the continued successful cultiva- 

 tion of any of our farm-crops to use it, as a general rule, 

 with a liberal amount of potash and phosphoric acid. 



A repeated treatment of the soil with Chili saltpetre, with- 

 out restoring those mineral plant-constituents which the crops 

 largely consume, and of which the former contains but small 

 quantities in an available form, is consequently a ruinous 

 practice, and excusable only in exceptional cases. A lib- 

 eral use of this saline compound, or nitrogen compounds 

 in general, tends to extend the period of vegetation, and 

 thus to retard the ripening process. The later in the season 

 the sodium nitrate is apjolied, the more serious is its effect on the 

 extension of the period of growth^ and the more imminent 

 the danger of obtaining unripe crops. An excessive amount 

 of straw, and a small yield of grain, in case of our cereals, 

 and large watery roots deficient in sugar, and such consti- 

 tuents as are formed during the later period of growth, — 

 in unfavorable seasons in particular, — are quite frequent but 

 practical illustrations of this mode of action. A repeated 

 late application of the sodium nitrate as top-dressing intensi- 

 fies, for obvious reasons, the previously stated tendency of 



