phosphate. This illustration is interesting as showing the Food for 

 really heavy consumption of plant food by ordinary farm ants 

 crops. While the yield in this case is a large one, it is 39 

 precisely such yields all farmers are striving for. It is 

 probably true that an acre application of 800 pounds of 

 Nitrate of Soda would not give a profitable return with this 

 crop; but such crops actually make use of soil Nitrogen and 

 the roughage of the farm, and to do this most effectively 

 top-dressings of Nitrate are advised to "start the crop off" 

 in the spring. 



In actual farming operations, the greater part of the 

 timothy crop will be returned to the soil in the form of 

 farmyard manure, much of which will be applied in the 

 fall. A considerable portion of the Nitrogen contained in 

 this manure will be converted into Nitrate during the fall and 

 winter, but there is always a great lack of Nitrate in the early 

 spring, when the plants most need it, and this shortage con- 

 tinues until the soil warms and becomes less charged with 

 water, when the organisms of the soil are enabled to convert 

 the vegetable substance containing Nitrogen into the form 

 suitable for the uses of the plants. Until this action, the 

 plants really starve for Nitrate; a situation instantly relieved 

 by top-dressings of Nitrate of Soda. 



Suggestions for Top-Dressing Crops. 



// must be understood that fertilizers do not take the 

 place of tillage. However thoroughly a crop may be ferti- 

 lized, -without proper preparation of the soil the result must 

 be more or less a failure. In top-dressing it is very important 

 that the Nitrate of Soda be thoroughly ground, that an even 

 distribution can be made; the fertilizer must go to the plant, 

 not the plant to the fertilizer. 



