Experiments with Fertilizers on Cotton. 



Food for 

 Plants 



73 



If there is no Nitrate present, the plant must wait until 

 the Nitrogen in the cotton-seed meal becomes nitrated, which, 

 in cool, damp soil takes a considerable time. Thus the plant, 

 in its most critical stage, is held back and checked in its 

 growth, from which it never fully recovers. On the other 

 hand, if a small quantity of Nitrate is used, the plant can 

 take it up at once and get a good strong start by the time the 

 cotton-seed meal is converted into the Nitrate form, the only 

 form that can be used by the plant. 



