The Canadian Horticulturist. 



261 



I 



stops its j^rowtli ; so does a reduction 

 of temperature to near freezinj:? and 

 dry soil. A drained soil, well tilled 

 and repeatedly exposed to the air, 

 with the necessary moisture and a 

 temperature ranf^nnp from 50 to 100 

 degrees are hij^dily favorable to its 

 growth. This is a far cheaper way 

 of getting nitrates than sending to 

 South America for nitrate of soda. 

 If the matted sod in orchards was 

 plowed, harrowed and cultivated and 

 exposed to the air, as soon as the 

 soil got warm these nitrate-producing 

 plants would grow and produce 

 nitrates for the growing plants, and 

 if there were no growing crops or 

 weeds on the lantl, the trees would 

 get the nitrates. If you let them, 

 the crops and the weeds will take up 

 the nitrates. You can convert 

 nitrates into carbo-hydrates in the 

 form of weeds that pay nothing, or 

 into carbo-hydrates in the form of 

 grass or grain that pays a little, or 

 into carbo-hydrates in the form of 

 fruit or garden truck that is worth 

 four or five, or ten, or twent}' times 

 as much as in the form of grain ; or 

 you may convert it into a block of 

 nursery stock that is popularly sup- 

 posed to be worth a king's ransom. 

 If we put on half the (juantity of 

 ordinary manure, and sow broadcast 

 200 lbs. of nitrate of soda per acre in 

 addition, this will be fully equivalent 

 to a good dressing of the very richest 

 of compost, and a good deal cheaper. 

 I say nitrate of soda, because it is 

 not only a cheaper source of nitrogen 

 than sulphate of ammonia or the 

 organic nitrogen in our different 

 fertilizers, but the nitrogen is in just 

 the condition necessary for absorp- 

 tion by the plants. I have used it 

 with great advantage on peaches, 

 strawberries, roses, currants, rasp- 



berries, asparagus, celery, plants, 

 potatoes, onions, beets, and nearly all 

 garden crops. For several years we 

 could not raise peaches ; the leaves 

 curled up and turned yellow in June, 

 and frecpiently fell off, and in a year 

 or two the tree was death For two 

 N'ears the trees that have had nitrates 

 have shown little or no symjitoms of 

 the disease — if disease it is. The 

 leaves have that dark green luxuriant 

 color that is the characteristic eflfect 

 of liberal manuring, and better than 

 all we had fine crops of peaches. 



lUit will not nitrate produce a 

 spongy growth with immature buds, 

 easily killed in the winter ? I think 

 nitrate of soda sown early in the 

 spring has precisely the opposite 

 effects. Nitrate applied early in the 

 spring are taken up by the peach 

 trees in May and Jime, or at the very 

 time that the trees usuall\- show 

 signs of a lack of vigor. Late in the 

 sunnner or early fall, little or no 

 nitrate of soda would be left, and 

 consequently would produce no late 

 spongy growth of wood. It is true 

 that peaches could be grown forty 

 years ago where they do not now 

 liourish. INIa}- it not be that the 

 organic matter in the new soil held 

 more water, and consequently fur- 

 nished the peach trees nitrates early 

 in the spring, and that what our 

 peach trees need to make them as 

 healthy and productive as formerly, 

 is a liberal supply of nitrates early 

 ill the spriii<r ? And a market gar- 

 dener, instead of using such excessive 

 (juantities of manure for the purpose 

 of getting nitrates for his early crops, 

 might well try if a direct application 

 of 400 or 500 pounds of nitrate of 

 soda, with a small dressing of man- 

 ure, would not be at least effective, 

 and far cheaper. 



