of moisture is necessary in order to distribute it throughout Food for 

 the soil, and, because of its ready availability, it is used by the Plants 

 plant as soon as it comes in contact with its roots. It is the *? 

 only form that possesses both these characteristics, and is, 

 therefore, to be particularly recommended for those crops 

 which need an early and abundant supply of Nitrogen. 



The aim usually in the use of artificial 



fertilizers is to so supplement soil supplies m 



of plant-food as to obtain a profit, and, as H 16 ;". se c 

 already intimated, the profits for the differ- Fertilizers, 

 ent crops will, to some extent, be in proportion to their 

 economical use of the constituents applied. Still, one should 

 not be deterred from the use of fertilizing materials, even if 

 the conditions should render the application apparently 

 wasteful, or a small recovery of the constituents applied, pro- 

 vided the increase in yield will more than pay the cost of the 

 application. The farmer should calculate what increase in 

 crop it is necessary for him to obtain in order to make the use 

 of fertilizers profitable, and if only this is obtained he should 

 not condemn their use. Many persons seem to have gotten 

 the impression that there is some mystery connected with 

 fertilizers, and that their use is a gamble at best, and are not 

 satisfied unless the returns from the investment in them are 

 disproportionately large. We very often hear the statement 

 that, by the use of certain fertilizers, the crop is doubled or 

 tripled, as if this were a remarkable occurrence and partook 

 of the nature of a mystery. Such results are not mysterious 

 they can be explained; they are in accordance with the 

 principles involved. 



In an experiment on celery it was shown that the weight 

 of celery from an application of 400 pounds per acre of 

 Nitrate of Soda was two and one-half times greater than that 

 obtained on the land upon which no Nitrate was used, and 

 that very great profit followed its use. This result, while re- 

 markable in a way, was not mysterious; if all the Nitrogen 

 applied had been used by the crop, there would have been a 

 still greater increase. It simply showed that where no extra 

 Nitrogen had been applied the plant was not able to obtain 

 enough to make the crop what the conditions of the season 

 and soil, in other respects, permitted. In other words, that 

 the soil did not contain a complete food; the Nitrogen was 

 necessary to supply the deficiency. Favorable conditions are, 



