FOOD FOR PLANTS 19 



early plants? He may get it, as before stated, from 

 an excessive and continuous use of stable manure, 

 but even then he fails to get it in sufficient quantity. 



One thousand pounds of Nitrate of Soda will fur- 

 nish more Nitrogen to the plants early in the spring 

 than the gardener can get from 100 tons of well- 

 rotted stable manure. The stable manure may help 

 furnish Nitrate for his later crops, but for his early 

 crops the gardener who fails to use Nitrate of Soda 

 is blind to his own interests. 



A given quantity of Nitrate will produce a given 

 amount of plant substance. A ton of wheat, straw 

 and grain together, contain about 1,500 pounds of dry 

 matter, of which 25 pounds is Nitrogen. To produce 

 a ton of wheat and straw together would require, 

 therefore, 170 pounds of Nitrate of Soda, in which 

 quantity there is 25 pounds of Nitrogen. 



A ton of cabbage, on the other hand, contains 

 about ^Yz pounds of Nitrogen. To produce a ton of 

 cabbage, therefore, would require 30 pounds of 

 Nitrate of Soda. 



There are no crops on which it is more profitable 

 to use fertilizers than on vegetables and small fruits, 

 provided they are used rightly. Failures with chem- 

 ical fertilizers are caused usually by lack of knowl- 

 edge. There is no doubt but that stable manure is 

 available as a fertilizer, and in some cases may be 

 indispensable, but at the same time the quantities 

 necessary to produce good results could be greatly 

 reduced by using chemical fertilizers to supply plant 

 food and only enough manure to give lightness and 

 add humus to the soil. 



