VIII 

 THE USE OF FERTILIZERS 



ADVANCED agriculture now recognizes everywhere 

 that plant food cannot be removed from the soil in- 

 definitely in the form of crops without jeopardizing 

 the success of subsequent crops. It must eventually 

 be replaced in part by the addition of fertilizers. 

 Moreover, it is perfectly safe to say, as it probably 

 will not hurt anybody's feelings, that no good fruit 

 grower at the present time has any idea of contin- 

 uing in the business without some sort of fertiliza- 

 tion. He expects to feed his trees. There are a 

 good many men, of course, who do not do any fertil- 

 izing, but they are either just going into the business 

 or just going out of it, usually the latter. 



ELEMENTS OF PLANT FOOD 



The elementary principles of plant nutrition are 

 now pretty well understood by farmers and espe- 

 cially by men who are sufficiently advanced to un- 

 dertake the commercial growing of peaches. It is 

 known that the important elements of plant food which 

 the tree takes from the soil are nitrogen, phosphoric 

 acid and potash. While other elements are of great im- 

 portance, and in fact indispensable to plant growth, 

 they are always present in sufficient quantities so that 

 the farmer or the fruit grower pays no attention to 

 supplying them. The fertilizer business is based 

 entirely upon the problem of supplying to the grow- 

 ing plants the three elements named. 



