MANURES. 



21 



from T5 to 100 pounds per acre at each application. It may be 

 sown near the hills if applied to cabbage, but for spinach or 

 similar crops it should be sown broadcast when the plants are 

 perfectly dry or during- a hard rain. If the leaves are only 

 moist, it is liable to burn them. If sown during a hard rain, 

 it is quickly dissolved and washed to the roots of the plants 

 without injury to the leaves. It is expensive and should 

 never be used when a cheaper supply of nitrogenous manure 

 will do just as well. It may occasionally be used to good 

 advantage in water at the rate of one-half an ounce of nitrate of 

 soda to one gallon of water. Such a solution will not -injure 

 the foliage and is of sufficient strength. 



Figure 2. — Spinach plants grown on land rich in rotten stable manure. The 

 larger plant received in addition to the stable manure nitrate of soda 

 at the rate of one hundred and fifty pounds per acre. 



The use of very large quantities of nitrate of soda on the 

 land has been found to make it necessary to continue using it 

 in large quantities, while if used at the rate given it is not 

 followed by such consequences. The supposed reason for 

 this is that so much nitric acid in the soil destroys the ni- 

 tric acid-forming ferments, and these must be slowly re- 

 plenished before the soil is able to continue yielding its ordin- 

 ary supply of nitrogen. 



