V 



FIELD CULTURE 153 



could be desired. This is the condition along the 

 seashore at San Eamon. In such a location the 

 application of fertilizers will indeed produce some im- 

 provement in the crop, but is likely to result in very 

 little profit, or even in a loss of money. The current 

 of water in the soil which brings other food to these 

 coco-nuts is usually taken up in very small part by the 

 roots of the trees. The rest moves onward, and if 

 fertilizers are applied to such trees in such quantities 

 as would produce the best results with crops differently 

 situated, the current of soil water must be expected 

 to carry a large part of them away with it. In the 

 case of trees planted along the beach, artificial fertilizers 

 will therefore be carried into the sea and absolutely lost. 

 The propriety of using fertilizers, therefore, depends 

 upon soil conditions which can be recognized by analysis, 

 and upon other conditions which elude analysis. 



It also depends directly upon the available supply 

 of water for the use of the plant. In localities which 

 have pronounced dry and wet seasons, fertilizers, to be 

 profitable, must be applied with especial care. Unless 

 water is artificially supplied, there will be parts of the 

 year in which the material in the soil is at least in 

 considerable part unavailable, because not dissolved in 

 water which the roots could absorb, and other parts 

 of the year when it is likely to be washed or leached 

 away by excessive water. The propriety of applying 

 fertilizers depends also upon the method of handling 

 the grove, whether or not catch-crops are grown, what 

 these crops are, and what they remove from the soil 

 or contribute to it. Sufficient details on this phase of 

 the question have already been presented. 



Aside from our general knowledge of the demand 

 of plants for their mineral and nitrogenous food, and 

 of the conditions under which they will absorb and use 

 such food, there are two general methods of investigating 

 the need of particular crops for particular foods, and - 

 of the utility and profit of applying particular fertilizers 

 to particular plants. The first of these is chemical 



