6 The Bulletin. 



(nitrate of soda and sulphate of ammonia ) are easily soluble in water 

 and become well distributed in the soil where plant roots can get at 

 them. They are, especially the nitrate of soda, ready to be taken 

 up by plants, and are therefore quick-acting forms of ammonia. It is 

 mainly the ammonia from nitrate of soda and sulphate of ammonia 

 that will be designated under the heading of water-soluble ammonia. 



Organic Ammonia. — The ammonia in cotton-seed meal, dried blood, 

 tankage, fish scrap, and so on, is included under this heading. These 

 materials are insoluble in water, and before they can feed plants they 

 must decay and have their ammonia changed, by the aid of the bacteria 

 of the soil, to nitrates, similar to nitrate of soda. 



They are valuable then as plant food in proportion to their content 

 of ammonia, and the rapidity with which they decay in the soil, or 

 rather the rate of decay, will determine the quickness of their action 

 as fertilizers. With short season, quick-growing crops, quickness of 

 action is an important consideration, but with crops occupying the 

 land during the greater portion, or all, of the growing season, it is 

 better to have a fertilizer that will become available more slowly, so 

 as to feed the plant till maturity. Cotton-seed meal and dried blood 

 decompose fairly rapidly, but will last the greater portion, if not all, 

 of the growing season in this State. While cotton seed and tankage 

 will last longer than meal and blood, none of these act so quickly, or 

 give out so soon, as nitrate of soda and sulphate of ammonia. 



Total Ammonia is made up of the water-soluble and organic; it is 

 the sum of these two. 



The farmer should suit, as far as possible, the kind of ammonia to 

 his different crops, and a study of the forms of ammonia as given in 

 the tables of analyses will help him to do this, 



FORM OF POTASH IN TOBACCO FERTILIZERS, 



Tobacco growers are becoming yearly more disposed to know the 

 form of potash, whether from kainit, muriate or sulphate, which 

 enters into their tobacco fertilizers. Considerable work of this kind 

 has been done for individuals, and we now determine the form of 

 potash in all tobacco brands, for the benefit of tobacco growers. 



The term potash from raurjate, as reported in the analyses, does not 

 mean, necessarily, that the potash was supplied by muriate of potash. 

 Sulphate or some other potash salt may have been used, but in all fer- 

 tilizers where the term potash from muriate is used, there is enough 

 chlorine present to combine with all the potash, though it may have 

 come from salt in tankage, kainit, or karnalite. As the objection to 

 the use of muriate of potash in tobacco fertilizers arises from the 

 chlorine present, it does not matter whether this substance is present in 

 common salt or potash-furnishing materials. 



The use of sulphate of potash where there is chlorine present in the 



