Food for These figures show a uniform, consis- 



Pimts what the , , , 



s c . c , tent and marked advantage from the use of 



Figures Show. .,. , c , . 



Nitrate of boda; and the effect of its ab- 

 sence is shown by the steady decline of the yields on the no- 

 Nitrate plat from year to year. In each year the use of 150 

 pounds of Nitrate gave increased yields over the plat with- 



Rock before Blasting with One Pound of Forty Per Cent. Dynamite. 



out Nitrogen, the gain varying from 1,200 to almost 2,300 

 pounds, an average gain of about seven-eighths of a ton of 

 hay. Three times this amount of Nitrate did not, of course, 

 give three times as much hay, but it so materially increased the 

 yield as to show that it was all used to good advantage except, 

 perhaps, in the second year. This was an exceptionally dry 

 year and but one crop could be cut. The advantage from the 

 Nitrate showed strikingly in the production of a rapid and 

 luxurious early growth while moisture was still available. 

 This supply of readily soluble food comes just when it is most 

 needed, since the natural change of unavailable forms of 

 Nitrogen in the soil to the soluble Nitrates proceeds very 

 slowly during the cool, moist weather of spring. The full 

 ration of Nitrogen, 450 pounds of Nitrate, more than 

 doubled the yield of hay over that produced on the no-Nitrate 



