Nitrate of But, with the same justice, the farmer, on his part, may 



Soda for c i a i m ^^ no restrictions be imposed upon him on the part 



_____!_ of the factory which would prevent him from obtaining the 



aa heaviest possible yield of beets on a given area. But both 



are to be reconciled, as I now propose to point out to you, 



by a proper use of Nitrate of Soda. 



Ammoniates The vari MS f orm \ f Nitrogen, as sul- 

 All Converted f a * e f ammonia, dried blood and 

 into Nitrates tankage, are in the long run converted 

 into Nitrates in the soil. There are 

 present in the soil ferments , bacilli (which indeed carry 

 on their work in every division of life] , which, in the 

 end, convert substances containing organic Nitrogen and 

 ammonia into Nitrates. But, gentlemen, in the conver- 

 sion of these substances into Nitrate, a certain loss 

 takes place. In the conversion of ammonia into Nitrate, 

 gaseous Nitrogen is developed, and this gaseous Nitrogen 

 is altogether valueless, for the atmosphere already con- 

 tains 79 to 80 per cent of it. But the Nitrogen- consuming 

 La Loss s P^nts beets, potatoes, wheat are un- 



c A able to take up this atmospheric Nitrogen; 

 of Ammonia 7 / < /->/ 



when Ordinary and an ammomacal manure, even if the 



. . . ammonia is in the course of time con- 



Ammoniates * j *~ \T** j. // JT j. 



. U . verted into Nitrate^ can only nave effect 



in proportion as Nitrate is produced 

 from the ammoniacal Nitrogen. We know that 100 

 parts of ammoniacal Nitrogen yield only about 85 parts 

 of Nitrate Nitrogen, so that the effect of the same 

 quantity of ammoniacal Nitrogen to Nitrogen in the 

 form of Nitrate of Soda is in the proportion of 85 to 100. 

 In the case of dried blood and tankage the compari- 

 son is still more unfavorable. Substances containing 

 organic Nitrogen which are intended for plant-food must 

 decay in the soil and first become ammonia, which has 

 subsequently to be converted into Nitrate. In this process 

 of decomposition and of conversion into ammonia, losses 

 of Nitrogen take place, and to these losses have to be added 

 those incidental to the conversion of the ammonia into 

 Nitrate, and we have thus two sources of loss, in addition 

 to which it has to be taken into account that, in the case of 

 manures containing organic Nitrogen, only 65 per cent of 

 the effect of the like quantity of Nitrate Nitrogen is apparent 



