New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. DAT 
In their power to gather nitrogen plants differ greatly, the clovers 
and other leguminous plants being able to produce a good crop 
where the grasses or cereals would entirely fail. In fertilizers 
there are several sources of the supply of nitrogen, such as 
ammonia salts, nitrate of soda (Chili saltpetre), blood, meat and 
fish scraps, leather, hair, cottonseed, castor pomace, ete. Of these 
leather and hair are worthless for immediate supply of nitrogen, 
for they are decomposed in the soil only after a long time. 
Ammonia salts and nitrate of soda are the most valuable, 
as the nitrogen of these salts are in a form to be used by the 
plant, and in these forms nitrogen costs most. Organic nitrogen, 
such as exists in cottonseed meal, linseed meal or castor pomace, 
soon becomes in the soil available for the use of the plant, and 
whatever of fertilizing matter the farmer purchases in the way of 
feeding-stuffs is secured with the. least cost when it has been 
converted into manure. ae, 
In our feeding stuffs by dividing the per cent of albuminoids 
(or protein of some chemists) by 6; we have the per cent of nitro- 
gen or pounds in one hundred of the substance. 
During the past two years we have made analyses of many of 
our most common foods, and in the first table we give the compo- 
sition of the ash of quite a number of these products ; also the per 
cent of nitrogen. In the second table are: given the number of 
pounds of phosphoric anhydride, potassium oxide, calcium and 
nitrogen. ‘This will enable the farmer to get a pretty good idea 
of the amount of fertilizing matter in the most common foods. In 
the last column of table II we give the valuation of the fertilizing 
matters, considering nitrogen worth 17 cents per pound, phos- 
phoric acid 8 cents and potash 53 cents, while to the lime no value 
is assigned. The above is about what nitrogen, phosphoric acid 
and potash cost in the markets when purchased as ammonia salts, 
soluble phosphates and potash salts. 
In a few instances determinations were made only for the prin- 
cipal fertilizing constituents. 
