24 
IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF 
supply of night-soil, like all effective nitrogenous fertilizers, 
has a powerful influence upon the tillering of the young 
plants and if the increased number of stems then do not 
find sufficient nitrogenous and phosphatic food, their func¬ 
tions are paralysed and the formation of grain cannot be 
accomplished to a normal extent. Hence a good supply of 
phosphoric acid to the plants should he regarded as particu¬ 
larly essential in all those cases where human excreta, and 
especially urine alone, constitute the exclusive or predomi¬ 
nating fertilizer. 
With reference to the deficiency of the night-soil in 
potash we may remember that many soils contain a large 
stock of this nutrient, and that also the vegetables and 
ashes which are frequently applied for the preparation of 
compost are rich in it. Moreover, all root and tuber pro¬ 
ducing crops have a special power of appropriating the 
potash compounds of the soil to an extent refused to cereal 
and leguminous plants ; nay more, they rarely profit from 
a direct supply of potash, but prefer to feed on potash ap¬ 
plied to preceding crops. In any case, attention should also 
be paid to this deficiency of the excreta, and trials made 
with the various cultivated soils to test whether the appli¬ 
cation of potash is profitable. 
Under the present condition of the farming classes and 
of the trade in concentrated fertilizers in this country, it 
should be particularly kept in mind, that by composting 
the night-soil with vegetable materials the ratio of the 
nutrients is doubtless much improved, and still more so by the 
application of ashes from wood and various kinds of straw, 
both which additions are widely resorted to by Japanese 
farmers. The best way, unfortunately made impracticable at 
present by many circumstances, of supplementing the ratio 
of nutrients in the excreta, is undoubtedly the liberal ap¬ 
plication of rapidly acting phosphates besides the additional 
manures (compost, ashes) already mentioned. For cereals. 
