To ensure the development of nitrogen-gathering nodules, the farmer should use a 

 culture of high inoculating power, isolated from the particular legume he desires to 

 plant, or he should get inoculated soil from a field that has grown this legume with 

 numerous nodules on plant roots. — From The Country Gentleman. 



HOW MUCH FERTILIZER? 



M. CUMMING, Secretary for Agriculture, Truro, N.S. 



All the older countries of the world use commercial fertilizer to a greater or less 

 extent. In Eastern Canada, vast quantities are annually used. While it is true that 

 much of this fertilizer is used to poor advantage, and while it is moreover true that 

 many farmers who use commercial fertilizer are apt to become careless in preserving 

 and increasing the quantity of their barnyard manure, yet the judicious use of com- 

 mercial fertilizer in the East has usually given big returns. This year, however, when 

 it is more urgent than ever that big crops should be grown, the price of commerical 

 fertilizer has soared away up, and at present farmers are hesitating as to what course to 

 pursue. 



In a publication entitled "Germany's Food Supply, Can it Last," being a study by 

 German experts, the following sentence occurs: "It is feared that owing to the 

 present difficult circumstances the farmers will be shy of buying manure to any great 

 extent, but this would be to conjure up the danger of a barren harvest next year." 

 The problem is much more serious for hemmed in Germany than for free Canada 

 or any other part of the British Empire, and yet it is a real problem here also. 



There is one thing worth remembering and it is that less fertilizer with more culti- 

 vation will go further than more fertilizer with less cultivation. Do not cut down your 

 purchases of fertilizer too much, but resolve to make up for any deficiencies by the 

 extra use of the harrow and the cultivator. This is work that makes bigger demands on 

 horse than on man power. If it is done, the farmer will in 1916, once again harvest big 

 crops. 



LIME 



R. HARCOURT, Professor of Chemistry, Ontario Agricultural College, 



Guelph. 



Lime is an essential constituent of the food of plants and, at the same time, one of 

 the mineral materials most readily leached from the soil. During the past season's 

 work on the soil survey of this province, thousands of borings were made in the soils 

 of the countries studied. In most cases the surface soils were acid to litmus paper, 

 and there was not enough carbonate of lime present to cause any apparent effervescence 

 until a depth of 20 to 24 inches was reached. In some places there was none even at 

 40 inches, the maximum depth of our borings. 



This downward movement of the lime is due to the fact that, through the action of 

 acids formed by the decay of organic matter in the soil, lime is brought into solution 

 and is then carried downward by the water as it settles into the soil. Consequently, 

 the richer the soil is in decaying organic matter, the faster the natural supply of lime will 

 be depleted, and, as an abundance of organic matter is an essential constituent of a 

 good soil, soils under the best of cultivation are bound to gradually lose their supply of 

 lime. 



Many methods have been devised for determining the amount of acid in a soil, 

 but none of these are suitable for field use. In most cases, it is sufficient to ascertain 

 the fact that the soil is acid. For this purpose, a fairly satisfactory test can be made with 

 blue litmus paper, which can be purchased at almost any drug store. It is sold in sheets 



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