Food von Plants. 17 



It is now known that the Nitrogen in organic matter 

 of soil or manure is slowly converted into the Nitrate 

 form by a minute organism. This cannot work if the 

 soil is too cold, or too wet, or too dry, or in a sour soil. 

 As a general rule, soils must be kept sweet and the other 

 conditions necessary for the conversion of the Nitrogen 

 into the Nitrate form are warm weather and a moist soil 

 in good physical condition. 



In the early spring the soil is too wet and too cold for 

 the change to take place. We must wait for warm 

 weather. But the gardener does not want to wait. He 

 makes his profits largely on his early crops. Guided 

 only by experience and tradition, he fills his land with 

 manure, and even then he gets only a moderate crop the 

 first year. He puts on seventy-five tons more manure the 

 next year, and gets a better crop. And he may continue 

 putting on manure till the soil is as rich in Nitrogen as 

 the manure itself, and even then he must keep on manur- 

 ing or he fails to get a good early crop. Why? The 

 Nitrogen of the soil, or of roots of plants, or manure, is 

 retained in the soil in a comparatively inert condition. 

 There is little or no loss. But when it is slowly converted 

 into Nitrate during warm weather, the plants take it up 

 and grow rapidly. 



How, then, is the market gardener to get the Nitrate 

 absolutely necessary for the growth of his early plants? 

 He may get it, as before stated, from an excessive and 

 continuous use of stable manure, but even then he fails 

 to get it in sufficient quantity. 



One thousand pounds of Nitrate of Soda will furnish 

 more Nitrogen to the plants early in the spring than the 

 gardener can get from 100 tons of well-rotted stable 

 manure. The stable manure may help furnish Nitrate 

 for his later crops, but for his early crops the gardener 

 who fails to use Nitrate of Soda is blind to his own 

 interests. 



