72 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



common I have known several myself where crops were injured or destroyed by improper 

 application. The great point is to have the material uniformly diffused through the soil, so 

 as to be within as ready reach of as many of the roots as possible, and not to be concentrated 

 in single places in such quantity as to injure the plants. The best way to secure this distrib 

 ution is to apply it some time before the seed is put in. For a crop to be sown in the spring, 

 it is well to put the potash fertilizers on in the fall, so that the water from rains and melting 

 snows may have opportunity to carry the potash down into the soil, and thus secure a deep 

 and uniform distribution before it is wanted for the growing crops. This is a particularly 

 good plan with the chlorides, and with the low grade salts, if the latter are used. The chlo 

 rine is gradually leached down into the lower strata of the soil, and away beyond where it 

 will do harm. There is no reason to fear loss of potash or magnesia in this way, since they 

 are retained by the absorptive power of the soil, and do not get beyond reach of the roots. 

 The only ingredients thus exposed to loss are the soda and chlorine, which have very little 

 value. There may, perhaps, be danger that the chlorine, in leaching out, will take lime with 

 it from the soil, but the loss would probably be of little practical moment. If, however, you 

 cannot apply your potash salts in fall or early spring, the next best plan is to mix them with 

 three or four times their bulk of earth, spread the mixture uniformly, and either plow under 

 or harrow in. Another most excellent way is to mix the salts with stable manure, by 

 spreading them on the heap from time to time as it accumulates. For clover or grass lands? 

 where the potash salts are to be used as a top-dressing, a very good plan is to compost and 

 apply as long as possible before the growth of the crop begins. 



It is especially advisable to apply the potash compounds not alone, but mixed with 

 phosphates and nitrogenous fertilizers. In this way the best practical results have been 

 obtained. Peruvian guano, ammoniated superphosphates, bone and fish, furnish nitrogen, 

 phosphoric acid and lime, and, if superphosphated, sulphuric acid also. The potash salts 

 supply potash with more or less sulphuric acid and magnesia. Such mixtures therefore 

 would form &quot;complete feililizers.&quot; 



In Germany, where the potash salts have come into &quot;very general use, quantities cor 

 responding to from 200 to 400, or at most 500 pounds of the higher grades, and from 300 to 

 600 of the lower grades, per acre, are recommended.&quot; 



The general conclusion respecting the use of the German potash salts as fertilizers are 

 given by Prof. Atwater as follows: 



&quot;1. Potassium, the basis of potash compounds, is indispensable to the growth of all 

 our cultivated plants. It has at least one specific office in the nutrition of the plant, that of 

 aiding in the formation of carbo-hydrates (starch). Without a plentiful supply of potash in 

 available forms, full crops are impossible. 



2. The German potash salts afford at present the cheapest and most available supply 

 of potash for fertilizers. They supply also more or less of magnesia and sulphuric acid, 

 which are essential ingredients of plant-food, and sometimes deficient in our soils, and of 

 sodium and chlorine compounds, which latter may be beneficial or harmful, according to the 

 circumstances of their use. 



3. The higher grades will be, in general, most profitable for use in this country, 

 because they furnish the most potassium with the least admixture of inferior materials, on 

 which costs of freight and handling must be paid. The chlorides (muriates), with 80-84 

 per cent, of chloride of potassium, and the sulphates, with 70 to 80 per cent, of sulphate of 

 potash, or the sulphate of potash and magnesia, with 54-57 per cent, of sulphate of potash, 

 are to be especially recommended. 



4. For potatoes, sugar-beets, or tobacco, the sulphates are preferable; for other crops, 

 the chlorides, which are cheaper, are equally good. 



5. In order to secure uniform diffusion through the soil, the potash salts should be 



