Food for 

 Plants 



258 



GENERAL DIRECTIONS 



FOR THE USE OF NITRATE OF SODA 



ON STAPLE CROPS. 



We never recommend the use of Nitrate of Soda 

 alone except at the rate of one hundred pounds to the 

 acre, for seeded crops and two hundred pounds to the 

 acre for cultivated crops. It may be thus safely and 

 profitably used without other fertilizers. It may be even- 

 ly applied at this rate as a broadcast top-dressing, by 

 hand, or by machine, in the Spring of the year, as soon 

 as crops begin rapid, new growth. At this rate very 

 satisfactory results are usually obtained without the use 

 of any other fertilizer, and soda residual, after the 

 nitrogenous food of this chemical is used up by the 

 plant, has a perceptible effect in sweetening sour land. 

 One hundred pounds of Nitrate is equal in bulk to about 

 one bushel. 



When it is desired to use a larger amount than one 

 hundred pounds of Nitrate per acre for seeded crops 

 (or two hundred pounds per acre for cultivated crops) 

 there should be present some form of available phos- 

 phatic and potassic plant food, and we recommend two 

 hundred pounds of acid phosphate and one hundred 

 pounds of sulphate of potash. 



In most of our Grass experiments where Nitrate 

 was used alone at the rate of only one hundred pounds 

 per acre, not only was the aftermath, or rowen much 

 improved, but in subsequent seasons, with no further 

 application of fertilizers to the plots a decidedly marked 

 effect was noticed, even on old meadows. This speaks 

 very well indeed for Nitrate of Soda not leaching out of 

 the soil. The readily soluble elements of fertility are the 

 readily available elements. The natural capillarity of 

 soils, doubtless, is in most instances a powerful factor in 

 retaining all readily soluble elements of fertility, other- 

 wise all the fertility of the world in our humid regions 

 would, in a season or two, run into the ocean, and be 

 permanently lost. This is mentioned on account of 

 certain critics having taken the trouble to object to 



