10 DR. NICHOLS' ADDRESS. 



received conueniing the cost of nitrogen, carbon, phosphorus, &c., and 

 sometimes orders are sent for these agents which are designed to bo 

 used for fertilizing ])urposes. While it is true that nitrogen is an ele- 

 ment needful to the nutrition of plants, it must be presented not. alone, 

 but in one of two forms of combination, either as ammonia or nitric acid, 

 and further, the acid must be in association with an alkali, as soda or 

 potash, in order to be safely employed by the farmer. In either one of 

 these forms it is of immense value as plant food. Nitrogen is a gase- 

 ous body and has neither taste, color or smell. It cannot be burned, 

 it will not support combustion, and it cannot be breathed into the 

 lungs. It is a strange negative element, and yet without its influence 

 not a stalk of corn or a blade of wheat can grow. It is the most 

 costly of all our fertilizing agents, and yet millions and billions of tons 

 are present in the air constantly, and every plant is surrounded by and 

 immersed in it. Is not this statement perplexing or paradoxical ? 

 Nitrogen, as it exists in nitrogenous bodies, as has been stated, is alone 

 available for plants, and the cheapest source outside of refuse animal 

 compound, is in the form of nitrate of .soda. This salt, known as 

 Chilian saltpetre, is sold at the present time at about four cents per 

 pound, which makes the nitrogen it contains cost about twenty eight 

 cents per pound. The nitrogen sulphate of ammonia, at present mar- 

 ket rates, costs thirty-five cents, and I have not found it so readily 

 available or prompt in its action upon my fields. For grass lands, as 

 a top dressing, the nitrate of soda has proved with me a profitable 

 agent. It brings in the better quality of grasses and largely increases 

 the crops. It should be pulverized fine, mixed with an equal quantity 

 of fine, seasoned peat, and sown evenly over the field, giving to each 

 acre two or three hundred pounds of the salt. Without a supply of 

 nitrogenous food, plants become feeble and, ultimately, die, hence, we 

 must supply it in some form, either as it exists in manure or in com- 

 mercial substances. The soil does not furnish it in sufficient abun- 

 dance, neither does the atmosphere, in any available form. There is 

 always a little ammonia in moist air, which comes from decaying ani- 

 mal or vegetahle matter, and there are also traces of nitric and nitrous 

 acids in rain water, but these sources of supply are wholly inadequate 

 to the wants of plants upon most fields. An acre of wheat yielding 

 twenty-five bushels, requires, in straw and grain, forty-five pounds of 

 ammonia. The results of careful experiments show that under the 

 most favorable circumstances no more than ten pounds of ammonia 

 is ever supplied to an acre of soil by rain water, so if all the ammonia 

 of the rain fall is assimilated, thirty-five pounds in addition would have 

 to be supplied to meet the wants of the wheat field. Carbon, the 

 agent so largely consumed by plants, fortunately costs us nothing. 

 The farmer need not trouble himself concerning thi.s important element 

 in plant food, for the atmosphere furnishes an abundant supply for all 

 our wants. It is supplied in the form of carbonic acid, and we do not 

 know that it can be assimilated through any other carbon compound. 

 A carbonate, unless it be'of potash or soda, is practically valueless to 

 the farmer. Carbonate of lime in any form cannot be regarded as a 



