FERTILIZERS. 



Probably eighty per cent of all inquiries addressed to the 

 Experiment Station relate to either the use of fertilizer or to 

 stock feeding. Recognizing this fact a Bulletin (No. 4) was is- 

 sued at the beginning of the winter. It will soon be time for 

 the use of fertilizers ; next year's crops must be fed, and -they 

 in turn will feed the farm stock of 1889-90, therefore, we must, 

 even before the present winter stock feeding ends, commence, 

 indirectly, the next winter's feeding. The first stages, however, 

 does not deal with albuminoids, starch, sugar, oil, etc., but with 

 the elements of which these are made up. 



Plants, no less than animals, require food ; they create noth- 

 ing, but simply take the compounds which exist in the air and 

 in the soil and by unknown chemical processes build up starch, 

 sugar, cellulose, vegetable acids, i)ils, albuminoids, etc. This 

 power belongs exclusively to plants ; animals are unable to trans- 

 form the elements of water and carbonic acid into starch and 

 glucose, or any other organic compound. 



If plants must be fed it follows that we must have food up- 

 on which to feed them. This we c^\\ plant food. 



To know what plants require we must know what they are 

 made up of. Chemical analysis alone is able to take apart the 

 substance of a plant and tell us what it is composed of. A stalk 

 of corn weighing five pounds, or eighty ounces, was analysed at 

 the Agricultural College Laboratory and found to contain : 



Ounces. 



Water, 65.15 



Albuminoids, 1.5 1 



Fat, 47 



f Cane sugar, 4.80 



Carbo- j Glucose, 80 



hydrates, j Starch, etc., 2,79 



L Fiber, 3.65 



Ash, .83 



Total, 80.00 



