HOW TO USE CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS TO 



ADVANTAGE. 



The form of Xitroi>en most active as 

 How Nitrate plant food is the nitrated form, namely: 



Increases Nitrate of Soda. All other Nitrogens 



Wheat Crops. must be converted into this form before 



they can be used as food by jjlants. Sir 

 John Lawes wisely remarks: *' When we consider that 

 the ai)plication of a few i)ounds of Nitrogen in Nitrate of 

 Soda to a soil which contains several thousand pounds of 

 Nitrogen in its organic form, is capable of increasing the 

 crop from 14 to 40 or even 50, bushels of wheat per acre, I 

 tliiidv it must be apparent to all that we have very con- 

 vincing evidence of the value of Nitrate." The Nitrogen 

 of Nitrate of Soda is immediately available as plant food, 

 and it should therefore be applied only when plants are 

 ready to use it. By such a ready supply of available 

 plant food, young plants are able to establish such a vigor 

 of growth that they can much better resist disease, and 

 the attacks of insects and parasites. The famous experi- 

 ments of Lawes and Gilbert at Rotham- 

 Nitrate Com- sted have demonstrated that cereals util- 



pared with ize more than three times as much of 



Farmyard the Nitrogen in Nitrate of Soda as of 



Manure. the Nitrogen contained in farmyard 



manure ; in practice, four and one-half 

 tons of farmyard manure supply only as much available 

 plant food as 100 pounds of Nitrate of Soda. 



Catch-crops are recommended to pre- 

 Catch-Crops. vent losses of available plant food after 



crops are removed. Rape, Italian rye 

 grass, rye, tliousand-headed kale and clovers are suit- 

 able All these should l>e tox)-dressed with from 100 to 

 lMK) ])()uii(1s per acre of Nitrate of Soda, depending upon 

 the exhaustion of the soil. In our remarks on the use of 

 Nitrate, we have taken it for granted that our readers 



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