Food for 

 Plants 



Hints for Right Use of Nitrate. 



The points to be observed in the use of Nitrate of Soda 53 

 are: Avoid an excess; make frequent small applications 

 rather than single large ones; avoid wetting the foliage with 

 solutions of it; do not sprinkle the wet foliage with dry 

 Nitrate; and in general Nitrate must not be allowed to come 

 in contact with the stems or leaves of plants. Nitrate of 

 Soda is a Nitrated ammoniate, and is immediately available 

 as plant food. The fertilizer suggested above may be 

 applied at the rate of 1,500 pounds per acre. Subsequent 

 applications of Nitrate of Soda may be made at the rate of 

 100 pounds per acre at intervals of two or three weeks during 

 the growing season. Apply the Nitrate well mixed with 

 fine dry soil at the rate of I ounce, to h ounce per hill. 

 The general fertilizer may be economized somewhat by using 

 a handful in each hill rather than by making a general 

 application. 



The Medical Record for July had an article on "Typhoid 

 Fever from Sources Other than Water Supply," the point of 

 which was that infection frotn the soil luas more common 

 than most physicians supposed. The germ may be in 

 vegetables^ in dust blown by the wind, and flies are active 

 agents in carrying it about. The writer warns those who 

 have the care of the sick never to bury the excreta of 

 patients. It is the surest way, he says, of "perpetuating 

 the disease in any locality, keeping it alive for years and 

 causing it to become epidemic." He observes that "there is 

 good evidence that the typhoid bacillus grows to the surface 

 in a mixture of soil and fecal matter, like a fungus in a 

 hot-bed, so that burial is no protection whatever against its 

 spread." Unfortunately, in almost every town or village 

 there are physicians who ignorantly insist on burying typhoid 

 material in the earth as the best way to dispose of it. 

 Chemical fertilizer should always be used by market 

 gardeners. 



