50 FERTILIZERS. 



slide-hoe, to work as much of it as possible into the soil, 

 and so save loss of ammonia. This is an excellent fer- 

 tilizer to use, in connection with barnyard manure, in the 

 early season, to give the crops a start. 



Market gardeners in the vicinity of our large cities 

 have but very little respect for phosphate and special fer- 

 tilizers, but, using from ten to twelve cords of stable 

 manure to the acre, think highly of guano at the rate of 

 a thousand pounds, or bone .at the rate of two thousand 

 pounds, per acre as an adjunct ; or, when stable manure 

 alone is to be depended on, from twenty to thirty cords. 1 

 Now, it is the nitrates that start the plants of the mar- 

 ket gardener, and, as far as the guano goes, for this end 

 it is a wise use of it; but to develop nitrates in stable 

 manure requires a degree of heat that the soil does not 

 receive before the season is somewhat advanced. With- 

 out knowing it, gardeners are using this vast amount of 

 barn manure to get a small stock of plant-food, which 

 they have already at hand in the fertilizer market, ready- 

 made, in the form of guano and nitrate of soda. A wise 

 head has suggested that they dispense with three-quarters 

 of the heavy manuring, and use one-half of the value of 

 this in investing in nitrate of soda, and put the balance 

 in their pockets as so much money saved. 



In closing the subject of nitrogen, I cannot do better 

 than quote the able remarks of Professor Goessmann : 

 " The air contains at all times carbonic acid, and in most 

 instances also nitric and nitrous acid and ammonia. The 

 soil absorbs, continually, more or less of the former, and 

 receives the nitrogen compounds in rain and snow. Once 

 absorbed by the soil, they find access to the plant by the 

 roots, as carbonates and nitrates, where they assist in the 



1 Assuming the stable manure costs him $7 a cord, he saves from $70 ti 

 $120 by using a thousand pounds of guano. 



