which is more than twice the amount ever sent out of the Food for 



country in any one year, it would require 125 years to ex- Plants 



haust the beds. If to these government beds there be added *3 

 those belonging to private persons, the final exhaustion of the 

 supply will not be for another two or three hundred years. 

 The reported imminency of the failure of the Chile beds has 

 been one of the reasons urged for the development of an ar- 

 tificial process of manufacture, up to this time a failure com- 

 mercially. 



Hints for Right Use of Nitrate. 



The points to be observed in the use of Nitrate of Soda 

 are: Avoid an excess; do not sprinkle the wet foliage 

 with dry Nitrate ; and in general Nitrate must not be allowed 

 to come in contact with the stems or leaves of plants. Nitrate 

 of Soda is immediately available as plant food. Applica- 

 tions of Nitrate of Soda may be made at the rate of 100 

 pounds per acre at intervals of two or three weeks during the 

 growing season. 



Nitrate of Soda comes from South How to Mix and 

 America in 224-pound bags, and is usually A PP^ Nitrate of 

 thus sold. The Nitrate looks much like Soda and Other 

 coarse salt. The lumps should be broken, fertilizers, 

 which can easily be done by turning the Nitrate out on the 

 barn floor and breaking with the back of a spade. The 

 Nitrate should then be run through a sieve with a mesh not 

 larger than one-fourth inch. It will then be ready for use. 



When fertilizers are to be mixed together, pour 

 the right quantity of each in a pile on the floor and turn them 

 over two or three times with a shovel until' they are thor- 

 oughly mixed. It is a good plan to run the whole through 

 a sieve, which will completely mix the fertilizers. The mix- 

 ing should not be done more than a week before the ferti- 

 lizers are to be used, as the mixture may attract moisture and 

 get hard if left too long after mixing. In Europe small hand 

 machines are used by farmers for grinding and mixing, and 

 cost about twenty-five dollars. They are also in use in 

 America. 



In applying fertilizers it should be re- HQW tQ A . 

 membered that any form of phosphoric phosohatic 

 acid, such as acid phosphate, dissolved Fertilizers 

 bone-black or bone meal is only partially 



