COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS IN HORTICULTURE. 161 



Turning now, in the second place, to the influence of the 

 composition of the fertilizer upon the product, we enter a field of 

 far too scanty knowledge, and in regard to the information which 

 we have, I freely confess that to me it does not have a desirable 

 definiteness and conclusiveness. Nor is this strange. Quality in 

 vegetables and fruits is dependent upon so many conditions, such 

 as climate, season, the fertility of the soil, rapidity of growth, 

 and manner of handling, that it is diflScult to trace the relation 

 between a single cause and its effect. There appears to be no 

 theoretical reason why a vegetable or a fruit may not be materially 

 modified by varying the kind and quantity of its food supply, and, 

 indeed, there are well established examples of this nature. The 

 increased ash content of plants through a liberal supply of easily 

 available mineral food ; the greater albuminoid content in certain 

 grasses due to heavy feeding with soluble nitrogen salts ; the 

 effect, in certain instances at least, of potassium chloride upon 

 the starch content of the potato ; the influence of the proportion 

 of nitrogen to phosphoric acid and potash compounds in fertilizers 

 upon the sugar content of beets ; the deterioration of the burning 

 quality of the tobacco leaf because of the influence of muriate of 

 potash in the fertilizer, — are all instances, well enough proven, of 

 favorable or unfavorable results from the manner of feeding the 

 plant. It is 'entirely reasonable to suppose that the sweetness or 

 acidity of fruits, or the flavor of certain vegetables, may be 

 modified in ways we do not now understand, by the kind and 

 quality of food supplied. Here is a field for continued and 

 painstaking work on the part of investigators in experiment 

 stations. 



It appears to me quite certain, however, that much of the 

 influence supposed to be due to the fertilizer is of an indirect 

 rather than a direct nature. I regard the sugar beet as an illus- 

 tration of this. It does not appear that the depression of the per 

 cent of sugar caused by heavy applications of animal manures, 

 or by an excessive use of nitrogen salts, is due to a direct 

 antagonism of the nitrogen compounds to sugar formation, but 

 rather to the fact that the abundant supply of nitrogenous 

 compounds so intensifies and prolongs the growth of the beets as 

 to prevent the production of the large sugar content which occurs 

 at maturity. So with other vegetables, the rate of growth and 

 the degree of maturity within a given time are important in rela- 

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