11 



perennial plants like luzerne, clover, etc., with nitrate of soda. 

 That advice was incorrect; it rested upon an insufficient knowl- 

 edge about the nitrogen nutrition of these plants. They do 

 require from two to three times as much nitrogen as wheat, 

 oats, corn, etc., yet they do not show under normal conditions 

 any increase worth mentioning, if fertilized with nitrogen." 



Now, though it is perhaps unnecessary to state, nitrogen is 

 the most expensive ingredient of any fertilizer; the doing away 

 with nitrogen fertilization in case of all leguminous plants, 

 saves therefore to the farmer all the money that might have 

 been spent on it, if he did not know of this late scientific 

 discovery. But this is not all. Nitrogen being, as has just 

 been said, the most costly element of plant-food, the further 

 question suggested itself: can the capacity of the leguminous 

 plants, to take up nitrogen from the atmosphere, be utilized by 

 the farmer to procure nitrogen for other crops without having 

 to pay for it ? And that question, certainly a downright prac- 

 tical question, has been answered also. Before, however, 

 giving the answer, a few words about the part which nitrogen 

 plays in the household of nature, or rather during the process 

 of plant-growth, appear not out of place, because they will 

 greatly facilitate the understanding of all that follows. 



NITROGEN REGULATES PLANT-GROWTH. 



Nitrogen acts as regulator of the productive capacity of all 

 non-leguminous plants. The subjoined table shows the amount 

 of potash (K 2 O) phosphoric acid and nitrogen contained in the 

 average crops of the several plants, the dry substance of the 

 harvest products, grain as well as straw, being comprised 

 therein. 



