124 AGRICULTURE 



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been given to the two new nitrogenous 

 manures, Calcium Cyanamide or Nitrolim, 

 and Nitrate of Lime. Both are produced 

 by bringing the free nitrogen of the atmos- 

 phere into chemical combination ; nitrolim, 

 as a result of decomposition in the soil, 

 furnishing plants with ammonia, while nitrate 

 of lime, of course, supplies nitrate nitrogen. 

 Experiments seem to show that these two 

 manures may be used for practically all 

 purposes that are now served by the old 

 standard nitrogenous manures, and so far as 

 yield of crop is concerned there seems very 

 little to choose between them, where equal 

 quantities of nitrogen are employed. Calcium 

 cyanamide is rather a dusty substance, and 

 therefore somewhat troublesome to sow, but 

 this difficulty can be readily got over in 

 various ways, such as damping, or mixing 

 with superphosphate. It generally contains 

 about 18 per cent, of nitrogen, that is to 

 say its composition approaches that of sul- 

 phate of ammonia ; while nitrate of lime 

 holds about 13 per cent, of nitrogen, a com- 

 position somewhat below that of nitrate 

 of soda. They may be valued, for com- 

 mercial purposes, on the prices current per 

 unit of nitrogen in sulphate of ammonia 

 and nitrate of soda respectively. While 



