Food for I t may not be out of place here to 



Plants Nitrate of Soda . I , , ., ~, r , , 



IT^J j, mention the fact that Mr. Llark s success in 

 as Used in . . L i i u / L 



Clark's Crass obtaining remarkably large yields or hay 



Cultivation ^ or a num ^ er ^ Y ears > an average of 9 tons 



of cured hay per acre for 1 1 years in suc- 

 cession, has been heralded throughout the United States. 

 He attributes his success largely to the liberal dressings of 

 Nitrate of Soda which he invariably applies to his fields 

 early in the spring, and which start the grass off with such 

 a vigorous growth as to shade and crowd out all noxious 

 weeds before they get fairly started and which result in a 

 large crop of clean and high priced hay. 

 H p It is also known that many who have 



P , . tested his methods have met with failure 



chiefly because they neglected to supply the 

 May Aid in the , J f a- 



p .. , . .. young grass plants with a sufficient amount 



. ... * of readily available food for their use in 



or INitrate 



early spring, and before the organic forms 



of Nitrogen, which exist in the soil only in an insoluble form 

 and which cannot be utilized by the plants as food, are con- 

 verted into soluble Nitrates by the action of bacteria in the 

 soil. This does not occur to any great extent until the soil 

 warms up to summer temperature when it is too late in the 

 season to benefit the crops' early spring growth. 



It is important that we always bear in mind the fact 

 that our only source of Nitrogen in the soil for all plants 

 is the remnants of former crops (roots, stems, dead leaves, 

 weeds, etc.) in different stages of decomposition, and that 

 in the early spring there is always a scarcity of Nitrogen 

 in the soil in an available form, for the reason that the most 

 of that which was converted into soluble forms by the action 

 of the soil bacteria during the warm summer months of the 

 previous year was either utilized by the plants occupying the 

 ground at that time or has been washed down below the 

 reach of the roots of the young plants by the melting snow 

 and the heavy rains of late winter and early spring. 



When we consider the fact that most plants require 

 and take up about 75 per cent, of their total Nitrate Ammo- 

 niate during the earlier stages of their growth and that Nitro- 

 gen is the element most largely entering into the building 

 up of the life principle (or protoplasm) of all plants, it is 



