FERTILIZERS IN THE WEST 



results can be expected from their use in the arid and semi- 

 arid districts of the West. This belief seems to be based more 

 on theoretical considerations than on practical experience. 

 An inquiry made by writing to the experiment stations 

 located in the sub-humid zone with the object of finding out 

 what has so far been done towards studying the use of com- 

 mercial fertilizers there, has brought out the fact that with a 

 few notable exceptions, the different stations have not yet 

 taken up the study of this question. 



Although the few experiment stations that have experi- 

 mented with commercial fertilizers have found that it is 

 profitable to apply them even where the rainfall is low, the 

 consensus of opinion still seems to be that they cannot be used 

 to advantage. Two reasons are usually given for this idea. 

 The first is, that the soils of these regions are generally 

 classed as soils rich in plant food, especially so in phosphoric 

 acid and potash. The nitrogen is rather low, but it is, accord- 

 ing to Hilgard, available to a much larger degree than that 

 found in soils of the humid zone. However, from the com- 

 paratively large percentages of phosphoric acid and potash as 

 found by chemical analysis, we are not justified to conclude 

 that the soils are rich in these elements as far as the needs 

 of plants are concerned, because as a rule most of this plant 

 food in the soil is insoluble and cannot be assimilated by 

 growing crops fast enough to provide for the most profitable 

 crops. 



Soil analysis, as practiced at present, discloses only that 

 portion of the elements of plant food that may be liberated 

 within the next thousand or ten thousand years, provided 



