Acid Phosphate; or Thomas Phosphate; or fine ground Raw Food for 

 Rock; or Peruvian Guano; and two hundred and fifty pounds ^^^"^^ 

 of some high-grade Potash Salt, preferably the Sulphate. 227 

 jd much larger amount than one hundred pounds of Nitrate 

 per acre, when used alone on staple crops, is generally sure 

 to give an unprofitable and unbalanced food ration to the 

 plant. For Market Gardening Crops, however, somewhat 

 more may be used alone. When the above amounts of 

 Phosphatic and Potassic Fertilizers are used, as much as 

 three hundred pounds of Nitrate of Soda may be applied 

 with profit. In applying Nitrate in any ration it is desirable 

 to mix it with an equal quantity of land plaster or fine, dry 

 loam or sand. 



Generally, on the Pacific Coast, nitrate may be applied 

 as a top-dressing after the heavy spring rains are over, but 

 before crops attain much of a start. 



The statement fraudulently made that Nitrate of Soda 

 is a stimulant, is false and misleading, as the Nitrogen 

 (which is the essential element for the growth of all plants) 

 is the same in Nitrate of Soda as it is in stable manure, 

 and has the additional advantage that it is thirty times as 

 abundant and of a hundred-fold greater immediate avail- 

 ability. Its after effect is also marked in subsequent sea- 

 sons, owing to the energy and increased size and feeding 

 capacity which it imparts to the roots of plants. It also 

 has a sweetening influence on sour lands, and hence is of 

 direct as well as indirect benefit to the land. As a healthy 

 plant tonic it has no equal, and owing to its complete 

 digestibility as a plant-food there is absolutely no roughage 

 or raw matter in it. 



