22 
BULLETIN 115. 
this could take place with the frequent cultivation and hoeings sugar 
beets are bound to receive. Granting that there is some truth in 
both claims advanced, the soil would have ample time to recover 
during the rotation with other crops, which is imperative for best all 
round results. It is well known that crops do not use the same 
amounts of food elements, and while growing they give an op¬ 
portunity for those elements to accumulate which are best used by a 
succeeding different crop. 
How Much to Use.—The limit of profitable application of nitrate 
of soda on land which is naturally capable of producing from ten to 
eighteen tons per acre is probably from 150 to 300 pounds per acre. The 
larger quantity gives more profit on less productive land than on 
more highly productive soil. This is largely due to the fact that 
there seems to be a certain limit to the productiveness of a soil, due 
more or less to its present physical state of condition, no matter how 
-much available plant food is present. 
In one case 580 pounds per acre applied to land which produced 
11.5 tons without fertilization, gave a small profit, but not nearly as 
much in proportion as was derived from smaller amounts applied on 
the same land. In another case 300 pounds applied to a soil which 
produced twenty-eight tons per acre without fertilization increased 
the yield, while 100 pounds applied to the same soil, was without 
effect. 
Larger quantities can sometime be applied, depending on the 
soil, with an increase in yield it is true, but the margin between the 
returns from the increased yield and the cost of the fertilizer, will not 
be as great as when smaller quantities are used on the same soil. A 
point will be reached where cost of the fertilizer applied will equal 
the increase in yield. And in the case of nitrate of soda an amount 
much beyond that point, will decrease the yield even below the normal 
productiveness of the soil. 
WHEN AND HOW USED 
Details of Application.—Cost.—No matter in what manner the 
nitrate is applied it must be prepared by breaking up the lumps and 
coarse particles and passed through a one-fourth or one-third inch 
sieve or screen. It can then be broadcasted before the last harrowing 
before seeding, which is probably the best method, or sown with the 
combined seeder and fertilizer drill with the seed. The broadcasting 
can be clone with an endgate seeder or fertilizer sower, or with drills 
made for the purpose. When sowing the nitrate at the same time as 
the seed by the use of a fertilizer attachment to an ordinary beet seed 
drill, the writer has found that unless the material is kept agitated it 
is likely to “bridge” similar to beet seed, and stop feeding. 
As to the cost of application it has been found that by the use of 
an endgate sower, two men with a team and wagon are able to cover 
from forty to fifty acres per day at an expense of $6.00 per day, or at 
forty acres per day, fifteen cents per acre. The screening of the 
nitrate and resacking should not exceed five cents per hundred. 
