Food for Xhis is done in the soil by the action of certain organisms, 

 ^°^^ Defects and under favorable conditions. The weather 



^°° - T^^.^^ ;„ fi,^ must be suitable, the soil in a certain con- 



Losses in tne ... i i • i i • i i i 



Use of Ordinarv "'^^°"' ^"^' besides, there are considerable 

 Ammoniates losses of valuable substance in the natural 



soil process of Nitrating the ammonia. By 

 unfavorable w^eather conditions, or very w^et or acid soils, 

 Nitration may be prevented until the season is too far 

 advanced, hence there may be loss of time, crop and money. 

 Intrinsic Values ^^^ quality of ammoniates, such as 

 of Ammoniates co"on-seed meal, dried fish, dried blood, 



v>^r,r.A ^« tankage, etc., is limited by conditions some- 



Based on 1 • M 1 • n • 11 



Nitrate as the what similar to those intiuencing sulphate 



oi. A ^A of ammonia, except that the crude materials 



Standard. i u, • ttt- i , 



are not even soluble in w^ater. With these 



substances, the loss of Nitrogen in its natural soil conversion 



into Nitrate is very great. Perfectly authentic experiments 



and made under official supervision, have shov^rn that lOO 



pounds of ammonia in these organic forms have only from 



one-half to three-fourths the manurial value of lOO pounds 



of Nitrate Ammonia in its Nitrated form of Nitrate of Soda. 



,,, , , This matter of fertilizer quality is not 



Pxiospnates . 



T^ , , ' confined to ammoniates. Potash also must 



be in soluble form, but as most agricultural 

 potash is in the shape of potash salts, all of v^hich are v^^ater 

 soluble, the solubility of potash is not a problem in manur- 

 ing. Hov^^ever, there are grades even in these salts. For 

 some crops materials containing muriates are thought to be 

 injurious, therefore potash in such forms as are free of 

 chlorine or muriates are of higher grade than those containing 

 chlorine. 



Special Functions of Plant Food. 



,y . As stated before, plants must have all 



_ ^. , three — Nitrate, Phosphates and Potash — 



Functions of r i i r i i 1 1 



^. or the plant rood elements, but notwith- 



standing this imperative need, each of the 

 three elements has its special use. This may seem of little 

 importance if for mere growth all three must be used in any 

 event. However, there are many cases in which considera- 

 tions of the special functions of plant food elements become 



