duce little, if no adequate material for the production of Food for 

 yields is at their disposal. Therefore, the best cultivation Plants 

 of the soil, the best seed, the variety of plant capable of the J 79 

 highest yields, the most suitable width of drill, the most 

 suitable quantity of seed, and the utmost care in sowing and 

 then do not allow the plants to hunger. 



Of phosphoric acid and potash especially, as much 

 should be given as is necessary for the highest possible yield. 

 There is no danger in using an excess of these elements, as 

 there will not be a loss from the soil; it is only nitrogen that 

 should not be given in excess, as there is danger of loss; be- 

 sides it must be measured out according to the plant's re- 

 quirements. The art of rational fertilizing is not so difficult 

 as it is often believed to be; we render the matter difficult to 

 ourselves by not having sufficiently clear ideas about it, and 

 very often, by allowing ourselves to be led by false prepos- 

 sessions and incorrect ways of looking at it. 



For example, it has been said, and we still read, even 

 at the present day, in many publications, that the effect of 

 fertilizing with Nitrate of Soda shows itself principally in 

 the yield of straw, in the yield of leaves, and in the devel- 

 opment of haulm, in the production of wood in the case of 

 the grape-vine, and much less in the yield of grain, roots, 

 potatoes, grapes, etc. This is an erroneous view. As experi- 

 ments have shown that the yield of grain and fruit in all 

 cases have been augmented by nitrogenous fertilizing in the 

 same proportion as straw and leaves. It has, also, 

 been alleged that it is not nitrogenous fertilizing in 

 itself that favors the development of straw and leaves, more 

 than the production of grain, roots and potatoes; that it is 

 rather a special effect of Nitrate of Soda and that fertilizing 

 with sulphate of ammonia has not this unfavorable result. 

 This is false. In my comprehensive work, "Fertilizing with 

 Sulphate of Ammonia in Comparison with Nitrate of Soda," 

 I have adduced proof from the results of a large number of 

 pot and field experiments, carried out at the Darmstadt Ex- 

 periment Station, that the proportion between straw and 

 grain, between leaves and roots, in the case of fertilizing with 

 sulphate of ammonia is in no way different from that in the 

 case of fertilizing with Nitrate of Soda. Our experiments 

 have further shown that the nitrogen of sulphate of ammonia 

 and the nitrogen of Nitrate of Soda increase the yields of 



