160 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



nearly the same for a large proportion of the crops that enter 

 iuto intensive agriculture to allow any very narrow use of the term 

 specific. 



The specific thing to do is to feed the plant generously with 

 what it needs. 



I can illustrate my thought no better perhaps, than by referring 

 to the experiments from the results of which the public, at least, 

 has come to believe that nitrate of soda is a specific for tomatoes. 

 These experiments were conducted mostly at the New Jersey and 

 New York (Cornell) Experiment Stations, and upon consulting 

 the conclusions drawn by the experimenters, I find that while 

 nitrate of soda has in some cases a greater influence when used 

 iilone than any other single fertilizer, such statements as these are 

 made: First. "Neither nitrate of soda nor muriate of potash 

 alone are profitable tomato manures upon thin soil." (Cornell 

 Bui. 21.) Second. "That the best effect is secured from manur- 

 ing with nitrate of soda when there is in the soil a sufficiency of 

 the mineral elements phosphoric acid and potash. (N. J. Bui. 

 63.)" Third. " These conclusions . . . show that ^financial 

 profits from the use of nitrate of soda are also governed by the 

 quantity applied^ the method oj application and a full supply in 

 the soil of the minercd elements. (N. J. Bui. 79)." What other 

 meaning can be given to these conclusions than this, — that when 

 tomatoes are abundantly supplied with all other elements of 

 growth save nitrogen, the addition of nitrate of soda, containing 

 nitrogen combined as nitric acid (all things considered its most 

 efficient form), greatly promotes growth and vigor. Of very 

 many, if not nearly all, of our cultivated plants, can the same 

 thing be said. Nitrate of soda is a great and almost universal 

 specific for furnishing available nitrogen to crops, as a wide 

 experience shows. That it is peculiarly so for tomatoes or any 

 other small list of cultivated plants I seriously question. 



My point is this : Cultivated plants require the same elements 

 of plant food, though in somewhat variable proportions. These 

 elements are found in certain compounds which are very generally 

 useful in plant nutrition. When a crop grower uses one or more 

 of these compounds to supplement his otherwise available supply 

 of plant food so as to secure intensive growth, that compound is 

 for him a " specific" for his conditions. 



