90 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY 



still, if the increased value of the crop were but $10, or even 

 $8, it would be a profitable investment, since no more land 

 and but little additional capital was required in order to 

 obtain the extra $5 or $8 per acre. 



The results of all the experiments conducted in different 

 parts of the country and in different seasons, show an aver- 

 age gain in yield of early tomatoes of about fifty per cent, 

 with an average increased value of crop of about $100 per 

 acre. The rest of the report shows similar results with other 

 crops. (New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Bul- 

 letin 172.) 



Joseph Harris says, " Some years ago we used nitrate of soda 

 cautiously as a top dressing on the celery plants. The effect 

 was astonishing. The next year, having more confidence, we 

 spread the nitrate at the time we sowed the seed, and again 

 after the plant came up, and twice afterward during a rain. 



" Instead of finding it difficult to get the plants early enough 

 for the celery growers who set them out, they were ready 

 three weeks before the usual time of transplanting. 



"At the four applications, we probably used 1600 Ib. of 

 nitrate of soda per acre, and this would probably furnish 

 more nitric acid to the plants than they could get from five 

 hundred tons of manure per acre, provided it had been pos- 

 sible to have worked such a quantity into the soil. Never 

 were finer plants grown. As compared with the increased 

 value of the plants, the cost of the nitrate is not worth 

 taking into consideration." 



As a means of fertilization without the use of artificial 

 fertilizer, soil inoculation has come. It has grown out of 

 the discovery of the dependence of leguminous plants on 

 bacteria which live on their roots. The discovery is one of 

 the most important of those made in modern agriculture. 



