Food for sufficient amount of readily available food for their 



___!^ use in early spring, and before the organic forms of 



92 Nitrogen, which exist in the soil only 



in an insoluble form and which can- 



How Careful 

 Cultivation 

 May Aid in the 

 Profitable Use 

 of Nitrate. 



not be utilized by the plants as food, 

 are converted into soluble Nitrates by 

 the action of bacteria in the soil. This 

 does not occur to any great extent until 

 the soil warms up to summer temperature when it is 

 too late in the season to benefit the crops' early spring 

 growth. 



It is important that we always bear in mind the 

 fact that our only source of Nitrogen in the soil for all 

 plants is the remnants of former crops (roots, stems,* 

 dead leaves, weeds, etc.) in different stages of decom- 

 position, and that in the early spring there is always 



Grass. 



1. Without Nitrogen. 2. % Ration of Nitrogen. 3. Full Ration 



of Nitrogen. 



All three fertilized alike with muriate of potash and acid phosphate. 



— R. I. Bu. 103. 



a scarcity of Nitrogen in the soil in an available form, 

 for the reason that the most of that which was con- 

 verted into soluble forms by the action of the soil 

 bacteria during the warm summer months of the pre- 

 vious year was either utilized by the plants occupying 

 the ground at that time or has been washed down 

 below the reach of the roots of the young plants by 

 the melting snow and the heavy rains of late winter 

 and early spring. 



When we consider the fact that most plants 

 require and take up about 75 per cent, of their total 



