sis/ //J Cornell University Library S 651.H3 Essay on the use of nitrate of soda for 3 1924 000 244 560 ON T$M)SX / kr * ffi& (L -5 6-5"/ ' H3 -OF- Nitrate of Soda FOR MANURE %}fo AND THE BEST MODE OF ITS EMPLOYMENT. BV JOSEPH HARRIS, M. S., MORETON FARM, MONROE COUNTY, N. Y. Author of " Walks and Talks on the Farm:" "Talks on Manures;" "Garden- ing for Young and Old;" "Harris on the Pig;" &c, &c. PRICE, lO CENTS, Copyright 1890. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. -INDEX. PAGE Ammonia - salts not as valuable as Nitrate of Soda 26, 29, 35* 4°i 4ii 42i 44) 73. 75) 7 6 Ammonia--salts composition of. . 72 Asparagus 70 Atwater, Prof., on the great value of nitrogen in Nitrate of Soda as compared with the value of nitrogen in organic matter 29 Barley 9 Barley, Experiments on at Ciren- cester 28 Barley, Experiments on at Wo- burn 25 Barley in the United States ... 2~ Barley, Lawes & Gilbert's Exper- iments on. 24 Barley, Manure for, from Ootton Seed Cake vs. Nitrate ot Soda.. 27 Barley, Nitrate vs. Ammonia for. 76 Barley, Nitrate vs. Farm Yard Manure for 78 Barley, Spring, how to sow Ni- ' trate on Si> Barley, Winter, how to sow Ni- trate oil 87 Barley, Nitrate of Soda can bo used witl great profit on -~i Barley, average yield of sixteen crops of -jn the same land -,'\, Barley, thi; thirty-second annual crop, where Nitrate of Soda was used was 5^ bushels per acre.. 25 Barley, yield of nine crops in suc- cession on the same land ::-R Beans t< • Beets for s-.gar cannot be profita- bly grown without Nitrate of Soda ,v? Beets, how to sow Nitrate on y„> Beets, Nit**ate of Soda for early. . 71 Beets runiiing to seed 82 Beets— St.gar 10 Eeets — Sugar, Nitrate of Soda for 36 Beets— Sugar, Lawes & Gilbert's , .experiments on +.\ Buckwheat ;i Cabbage Sr Cabbage, Manure for 51 Carbo-hydrates, their value in different crops 12 Carrots 69, 82 Cauliflower 82 Celery, Nitrate of Soda for 54 Corn =,9 Corn and Fodder Corn, how to sow Nitrate on no Corn, after cotton dressed with Nitrate qf Soda t r, Cotton, Nitrate of Soda on, per- manently enriches the land 411 Cotton, Experiments of Dr. McBryde in'1888 44 Cotton, Experiments of Dr. McBryde in 1880 4 3 Cotton, Nitrate of Soda for:— Experiments of Allen Edens... .7 Experiments of E.T.Stackhouse 47 Experiments of J. L. Napier ^8 Experiments of J. Meek ins Wood ley 46 Crops, early require more manure than late.. - 5+ PAGE Crops, rotation of, necessary to to avoid the loss of nitrates. 15, 17 Crops on which Nitrate should be used 9' 6 7 Cucumbers 7 2 i Si Currants, Manure for 62 Diseases of Plants 66 Drought 60 Farm Yard Manure vs. Nitrate of Soda 25,26,36,66,77 Farm Yard Manure, composition of -. e 3. 56 Farm Yard Manure, Ashes of, for Wheat 4 Fertilizers, care in using 95 Flowers, Nitrate of Soda for. .". . . 60 Forcing Plants 58, 81 Garden Crops, Manure for. 53 Garden Crops, sowing Nitrate on 92 Gardenei . -Market, an Important Truth for 79 Grass, Experiments on at Ciren- cester 43 Grass, how to sow Nitrate on 92 Grass, Lawes & Gilbert's Exper- iments on 41 Grass, Nitrate of Soda for 41 Grass, roots of follow Nitrate of Soda into the sub-soil 42 Hay, an increase of 4,332 pounds oi per acre obtained from the use of Nitrate of Soda.. 41 Hops, Nitrate of Soda for 44 Insects vs. Nitrate of Soda. 66 Lawes, Sir John B., Bart., Letter from 42 Lettuce 72 Mangold Wurzel 10 Mangold Wurzel, Essex Co. Ag. Society Experiments on 36 Mangold Wurzel, how to sow Ni- trate on 92 Mangold Wurzel, Lawes & Gil- bert's Experiments on 35 Manure vs. Nitrate of Soda. .25,26,36,77 Manure for Early and Late Cab- bage 54 Massey, Prof. W. F., Experiments of, with Nitrate of Soda on Strawberries 62 Melons, Nitrate of Soda for 72 Melons^ injured by the careless - 95 use of fertilizers McBryde, Dr. J. M., experiments of on cotton. 44 Nitrate of Soda, composition of.. 72 Nitrate of Potash, u " .. 72 Nitrate of Soda, how to sow a given quantity per acre 93 Nitrate of Soda, why so little has been used in the United States. 5 Nitrate of Soda, mixing with oth- er fertilizers 85 Nitrate of Soda, How to Use . . 84, 95 Nitrate of Soda in solution 94 Nitrate of Soda more profitable in the United States than in Eng- land 16 (CONTINUED ON THIRD PAGE OF COVKR.1 ESSAY ON THE USE -OF- Nitrate of Soda FOR MANURE AND THE BEST MODE OF ITS EMPLOYMENT. BY JOSEPH HARRIS, M. S., MORETON FARM, MONROE COUNTY, N. Y. Author of " Walks and Talks on the Farm;" " Talks on Manures;" " Garden- ing for Young and Old;" "Harris on the Pig;" &c, &c. PRICE, lO CENTS. Copyright 1890. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000244560 INTRODUCTION. Farmers and gardeners sometimes express surprise that agricultural chemists talk so much about nitrogen. When it is known, however, that of all the organic matter of plants and manures — in other words, all the matter which is driven off by burning — the only ele- ment of any direct value as plant-food is nitrogen, it will be readily seen that nitrogen is entitled to even greater attention than it at present receives. Farmers and gardeners and fruit growers fully recog- nize the value of barn-yard manure. In a ton of ordi- nary manure, containing 75 per cent, of water, there is 1,275 pounds of organic matter and 225 pounds of ash. Except for its mechanical and indirect benefit to the soil, all the manurial value of this 1,275 pounds of organic matter is due to the nitrogen which it contains. Is it any wonder, therefore, that we hear so much about nitrogen ? A little over forty years ago it was claimed that the chief value of manure was due to the mineral matter or ashes that it contained. To test this matter in a practical way, Mr. Lawes, the first year of his since celebrated experiments on wheat at Rothamsted, s applied 14 tons of barn-yard manure on one plot and on> an adjoining plot, the ashes of 14 tons of barn-yard manure. The result was as follows : 1. No manure, 15 bushels wheat per acre. 2. 14 tons barn-yard manure, 20^ bushels wheat per acre. 3. The ashes of 14 tons of barn-yard manure, 14^ bushels wheat per acre. Since then it has been shown conclusively, as we said before, that all there is of actual value as plant- food in the large mass of organic matter which we ap- ply in barn-yard manure, is the nitrogen which it con- tains. Furthermore, it has been proved that, for at least many of our crops, the nitrogen must be converted into nitric acid and the nitric acid into NITRATE before it furnishes appropriate food for plants. The importance of NITRATE of soda as a manure, therefore, is obvious. We have used nitrate of soda for years on our own farm. There is not a crop we grow that does not almost instantly show a decided benefit from its application. In saying this, however, it does not follow that its appli- cation is alike profitable on all crops. The profit de- pends very much on the price of the produce. Unfor- tunately, farm produce is low ; but great as has been the reduction in the price of farm produce, the reduc- tion in the price of nitrate of soda has been stilL greater. In his celebrated paper read before the Society of Arts in 1877, Mr. (now Sir) John B. Lawes, certainly the most distinguished agriculturist of the age, said : " A future generation of British farmers will doubtless hear with some surprise that at the close of the manure season of 1876, there were 40,000 tons of nitrate of soda in our docks which could not find purchasers, al- though the price did not exceed $60 or $65 per ton." A future generation of American farmers will doubt- less read with surprise that a decade or more later, though offered at a still lower price, not a hundred tons a year, all told, were used in the United States as manure. The reason so few have heretofore used nitrate in this country is not because it is unprofitable, but sim- ply because its merits are unknown, and because deal- ers in fertilizers do not keep it for sale. We have said that nitrate of soda will benefit nearly every crop we grow, but it does not follow from this that it is equally profitable on all crops. It is precisely here that those who use nitrate for the first time are likely to fail. They will be apt to use it on corn or some other cheap product. Nitrate, theoretically, (if needed), will increase a crop of corn as much as it will a crop of wheat, but the corn will not sell in market, on the average, for more than one-half as much per ioo pounds as the wheat. And so of oats and barley. The nitrate, other things being equal, will increase the crop of oats as much as the crop of barley, but with 6 us, good barley for malting purposes often sells for double the price of oats per ioo pounds. Nitrate of soda knows nothing about prices and but little about " bushels." It will do its duty faithfully and promptly without regard to market reports. It seems strange that this question of the value of the produce has received so little attention. We have a parallel case in regard to renting land. The proprie- tor furnishes the land and half the seed, the tenant does all the work and gives the land owner half the crop. A crop of barley, oats or wheat can be sown and harvested with less than half the labor required by a crop of potatoes or roots. And yet we have rare- ly met a tenant who took this point into consideration. Part of a field would be put into barley and part into corn and part into potatoes and part into roots. He did not understand that, if he got a good crop, he paid the land owner double and treble, and sometimes four or five times the rent for an acre of roots or potatoes as for an acre of barley or oats or wheat. Nitrate of soda has been not unfrequently used with as little thought. It will increase the productiveness of nearly every crop that is grown. But there is great difference in the profitableness of its application. And this not so much owing to any marked difference in the effect pro- duced as to the price that can be obtained for the crop. And here again there is much misconception. We sell by the bushel. A bushel of oats weighs 32 lbs.; a bushel of barley 48 lbs.; a bushel of corn 56 lbs., and a bushel of wheat 60 lbs. As we said before, nitrate of soda knows nothing of commercial measure or bulk. And it is equally true that weight alone is misleading. A commercial bushel of potatoes weighs as much as a bushel of wheat, but the bushel of potatoes is four- fifths water, and it ought to be, and is, as easy to grow five bushels of potatoes as one bushel of wheat. And yet it is not uncommon for a bushel of potatoes to command as high a price as a bushel of wheat. Nitrate of soda knows nothing about these peculiarities of the market; intelligent farmers, however, should study the subject and be thus prepared to apply the nitrate where it is likely to return the most money. Nitrate of soda can be used with great profit. Nitrogen is the most costly ingredient of manures. One thousand lbs. of stable manure rarely contains more than 5 lbs. of nitrogen. We will not say that no plant can grow in a soil des- titute of nitrogen, but it maybe safely affirmed that no profitable crop can be grown, unless the soil itself or the manure which is used, contains nitrogen. This is an admitted fact. It has been asserted that the soil contains all the nitrogen that plants need, and that if we have poor crops it is owing to a lack o'f the mineral or ash con- stituents of plants. There are soils, undoubtedly, which contain nitrogen enough to give us fair crops, with or without the aid of mineral fertilizers. But maximum crops are rarely, if ever, produced for any length of time without the direct or indirect application of nitrogen. By maximum crops, we mean an amount of produce which the season is capable of producing. In some seasons, 25 bushels of wheat per acre is a maximum crop; while in other seasons, the same land, the same manure, the same variety and the same treatment will produce 50 bushels per acre. In England, those farmers who use large quantities of manure frequently fail to get large crops of wheat from lack of sunshine ; in America we have plenty of sun, but we rarely get as large crops as are grown in England. Why ? Imperfect tillage, want of drainage, late sowing, and weeds, greatly reduce our crops ; but on well managed farms, the reason our crops do not come up to the English standard is, essentially, the want of available nitrogen in the soil. HOW MUCH PBODUCE OA.N WE GET FEOM THE USE OF A GIVEN QUANTITY OF NITEATE OF SODA? This question has received less attention than its importance deserves. There are two ways of answer- ing it : 1st, By using the nitrate on crops and ascer- taining the increased produce ; 2nd, By ascertaining how much nitrogen different crops contain. The practical farmer will attach more importance to the first method than to the second. And in this he is right. But still, it is interesting to know how much increase a given quantity of nitrate of soda is capable of producing. The following table will show how much increased growth of different crops 250 lbs. of nitrate of soda, containing 40 lbs. of nitrogen, is capable of produc- ing: TABLE SHOWING AMOUNT OF INCREASED PRODUCE WHICH MAY BE OBTAINED FROM 250 LBS. OF NI- TRATE OF SODA : Wheat 2,000 lbs. Straw 28^ bu. Grain Barley 2,000" " 38 Oats 2,000" " 44^ Indian Corn 2,000" " 31 J*j Rye 2,000" " 27^ Buckwheat 1,000" " 39^ IO Beans 500 lbs. Straw 13^ bu.Grain. Peas 500" " 16 " " Potatoes 1,000 " Tops 184 "Tubers Mangold-wurzel 4,000" " 277 "Roots. Sugar Beets 4,000" " _ 313 Swede Turnips 4,000" " 277 " " It is an easy matter to extend this list to all our crops. We do not claim that, if you sow 250 lbs. of nitrate of soda on an acre of wheat in the spring, you will always, if ever, get 2Sj4 bushels of wheat and 2,000 lbs of straw, more than on the adjoining acre where no nitrate is sown. The land may have been heavily manured and be rich enough without the nitrate. Or the nitrate may not have been sown early enough, and the roots of the plants can get at only a portion of it. But what is claimed is this: If the soil and season are favorable, if the land is free from weeds and the wheat plants take up the 250 lbs of nitrate, the increased crop will be about 2,000 lbs. of straw or dry roots and 28^ bushels of wheat. And so of the other crops given in the table. If all the 250 lbs. of nitrate of soda is taken up by the bar- ley plant, we should get an increase of about 2,000 lbs. of straw, stubble and roots and 38 bushels of barley. If applied to potatoes, the 250 lbs. of nitrate, if taken up by the plants and properly utilized, should give us an extra growth of 1,000 lbs of tops and 184 bushels of tubers. II In practical farming, we rarely get as great an in- crease as the nitrate is capable of producing. Weeds,, wet weather, drought, insects, mildew and many other causes render farming on paper much easier and more profitable than farming in the field. It is interesting to know, however, what we may expect if we should ever succee'd in getting perfect conditions of growth. Dr. Stutzer, president of the Experiment Station at Bonn, and Dr. Wagner of Darmstadt, have adopted the above method of showing what effect nitrate of soda is capable of producing on different crops, and the profit derived from its application. They show that at current German prices, one hundred pounds of nitrate of soda, after deducting about one-third of the nitrogen that they assume is absorbed by weeds and organized by the roots and stubble of the crop and leached out of the soil, will increase a crop of barley by 347 lbs. of grain, and 694 lbs. of straw and afford a profit of $7.75 ; with oats a profit of $6.75, and with potatoes a profit of $9. Dr. Wagner, in his recent work on Nitrogenous Ma- nures, after allowing for a loss of one-third of the nitrogen, shows that the profits derived from the use of one hundred lbs. of nitrate of soda, are with hay, $3.75; cattle turnips, $5.50 ; beets, $8.00 ; poppyseed, $11.50. "These figures," he remarks, "show how great the differences are, in the profits obtained by manuring with nitrogen, and how remunerative it is to manure freely with nitrogen, and so force on, to the 12 greatest possible productiveness those plants in partic- ular which yield market produce of high value." We have advocated this view of the subject for many years, and are pleased to have it adopted by such eminent authorities. We have not space to elab- orate the idea here, but it will, we feel confident, be found that the profit of using nitrate of soda, depends far more on the price obtained for the carbo-hydrates or oils or flavoring matters of the produce, than on the amount of nitrogen. The carbo-hydrates in hay are worth less than the carbo-hydrates in grain or in beets or potatoes, and the carbo-hydrates in early garden vegetables and fruits often bring exceedingly high prices, and the use of nitrates in such cases, is attended with great profit. Nitrate of Soda for Wheat. The average wheat crop of the United States may be placed at 10 bushels per acre. The average of good farmers who cultivate their land properly, may be placed at 20 bushels per acre. The " season " is capable of giving us, it may be, 30, 40 or to bushels per acre ; and the reason good farm- ers do not get something approximating the capabili- ties of the soil, sun and season, is a deficiency of available nitrogen in the soil. The experiments of Lawes & Gilbert at Rothamsted, England, on the growth of wheat, while of inestimable scientific value, are likely to discourage the practical 13 farmer. The wheat is grown year after year on the same land, and the crop can only be kept clean by hoeing and weeding by hand. The practical farmer, who adopts a good rotation of crops and keeps his land clean, will probably get better returns from the use of a given amount of nitrogen than the results at Rothamsted would lead us to expect. And yet, even at Rothamsted, with wheat grown year after year, on the same land, we have results "which are not discouraging in regard to the use of ni- trate of soda for wheat. For instance, in the eleventh •crop in succession on the same land, the following yields per acre were obtained on different plots in the same field : TABLE SHOWING THE EFFECT OF NITRATE OF SODA ON WHEAT AT ROTHAMSTED, ENGLAND. Per acre. Straw. :No manure 22^ bushels. 2137 lbs. Mineral manures 25^ " 2503 " •275 lbs. Nitrate of Soda 41 4142 " Here we have an increase over the unmanured crop of 18^ bushels of wheat and 2005 lbs. of straw from the use of 275 lbs. of nitrate of soda alone. No min- eral manures were used for the crop this year, nor for the two preceding years. 100 lbs. of nitrate of soda produce 6^ bushels of wheat. On the same plot, the fourteenth crop in succession, the results were as follows ; Straw. Total Produce, No manure 20^ bushels. 1577 lbs. 2813 lbs. Minerals 23^ " 1617 " 3026 " Minerals and 550 lbs. Nitrate of Soda 46 " 3867 " 6634 " Here 550 lbs. of nitrate of soda in connection with minerals, produced an increase over the plot dressed with the same amount of minerals alone, of 22^ bushels of wheat and 2250 lbs. of straw. The next year, the fifteenth crop on the same plot, the increase from nitrate of soda and minerals as com- pared with the plot dressed with minerals, was 20 bushels per acre. In 1863, the 20th crop of wheat in succession on the same land, the yield on this plot as compared with the plot without manure and the plot dressed with minerals, was as follows : TABLE SHOWING THE EFFECT OF NITRATE OF SODA ON WHEAT AT ROTHAMSTED. Total Corn Straw. and Straw. No manure, 18 3^ Bus. 1600 lbs. 2727 lbs. Minerals, 21 % " 1687 " 2970 " Minerals and 550 lbs. Nitrate of Soda 59^ " 6312 " 9888 " No one will question the accuracy of Lawes & Gil- bert's experiments. But, as before stated, these ex- periments, necessarily, do not show the full advantage to be derived from the use of nitrate of soda as a manure. 15 Growing wheat year after year on the same land and manuring it, as is the case at Rothamsted, with the .same manures year after year, is not economical farm- ing. Much of the nitrate of soda is lost. If the wheat was followed by grass and clover, as is the case in the United States, the nitrate would be recovered in the grass and clover or other subsequent crops. Furthermore, it is probable that a smaller appli. cation of nitrate of soda would often produce nearly equally good results. The yield is fully up to the ca- pacity of the " season." A greater application of nitro- gen produces no larger crops of grain, though some- times giving more straw. For instance, on this twentieth wheat crop in suc- ■cession, 800 lbs. of salts of ammonia, containing double .the quantity of nitrogen as the 550 lbs. of nitrate, pro- duced, though an abundant supply of minerals was .also applied, only half a bushel more wheat per acre. On the nth crop, when only 275 lbs. of nitrate of soda alone was used, one pound of nitrate of soda produced an increase of 4 lbs. of wheat. On the 20th crop, when 550 lbs. of nitrate were used, one lb. of nitrate of soda produced also 4 lbs. of wheat. In this latter case, there was an abundant supply of minerals. In the former case, no minerals were used with the nitrate. The result is interesting. In both cases the increase is due to the nitrate, and where double the quantity of i6 nitrate was used, double the increase of grain was ob- tained. But why do we not get even still better results ?' One hundred lbs. of nitrate of soda contain as much nitrogen as 10 bushels of wheat and 1800 to 2000 lbs. of straw. We should, therefore, expect, when nitro- gen is needed, to get an increase of ten bushels of wheat from an application of 100 lbs. of nitrate of soda. But in the above experiment of Lawes & Gil- bert it requires 150 lbs. of nitrate to produce an in- crease of 10 bushels of wheat. In other words one third of the nitrogen is not ap- propriated by the plants. This is a serious loss. Is it unavoidable ? Judging from Lawes & Gilbert's experiments, it would seem that in the English climate, and where wheat is grown year after year on the same land, we cannot get back in the first crop of wheat all the nitro- gen we apply in manure. And in the experiments of Lawes & Gilbert, the second crop of wheat gets little or no benefit from the excess of nitrogen used the previous year. In the United States, where the climate differs essentially from that of England, we believe there would be little loss of nitrogen. The wheat crop would take up nearly the whole of the nitrate applied in moderate quantity, and what was not used by the wheat would be absorbed by the grass and clover which are sown with the wheat. 17 On the farm of the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, England, the lamented Dr. Voelcker sowed nitrate of soda as a top dressing on growing wheat, March 22, 1859. The result was as follows, per acre : GRAIN. STRAW. No Manure 27 bush. 1,984 lbs. 196 lbs. Nitrate of Soda . . 38 bush. 2,696 lbs. 180 lbs. Nitrate of Soda and 168 lbs. Common Salt, 404- bush. 2,736 lbs. In this case where salt was used 75 per cent, of the nitrogen was recovered in the increase. In other words, 100 lbs. of nitrate of soda produced 7^ bushels of wheat and 752 lbs. of straw. In i860, 168 pounds of nitrate of soda were sown on the wheat, March 27th. The following is the result : GRAIN. STRAW. No Manure 34 /bush. 27^ cwt. 168 lbs. Nitrate of Soda 44^ bush. 374 cwt. In 1 861, the results were as follows : GRAIN. STRAW. No Manure 31 bush. 21 cwt. 168 lbs. Nitrate of Soda 45 bush. 29 J cwt. The season of i860, was an unfavorable one, and yet it is seen that 168 lbs, of nitrate of soda produce an increase of 10 bushels of wheat. The same year in the Lawes & Gilbert experiments at Rothamsted, on the field which is kept continuously in wheat, 550 lbs. of nitrate produced an increase of 17 bushels. In 1 861, at Cirencester, 168 lbs. of nitrate of soda produced an increase of 13J bushels. At Rothamsted the same year, 550 lbs. of nitrate produced an increase of i8£ bushels. These facts seem to indicate that at Rothamsted, where the same manures are used year after year on the same crops in succession, the effect of nitrate of soda is not as great as in ordinary farm practice. Dr. Voelcker states that the actual clear profit from the use of the nitrate of. soda in 1861 was £3. 18s. 6d. or about $19 per acre. The wheat being sold at 50s. per quarter, or $1.50 per bushel. The nitrate of soda cost .£15.10 per ton in 1861, and great as has been the decline in the price of wheat since that time, the reduction in the price of nitrate of soda has been still greater. We can use nitrate with greater profit now than then. Mr. C. Norman, West Somerset, England, in 1886, obtained the following results from a top dressing of 3 cwt. of mineral superphosphate and ijcwt. of nitrate of soda on wheat : Superphosphate alone, 43 bushels per acre, and 3,495 lbs. of straw. Superphosphate and 1% cwt. of nitrate of soda, 54 bushels per acre, and 5,146 lbs. of straw. Mr. Knolly of West Somerset, the same year, from a similar experiment, obtained the following results on wheat. No manure, 37 bush, per acre and 3,824 lbs. of straw. Mineral superphosphate, 38 bushels per acre, and 4,114 lbs. of straw. l 9 i% cwt. nitrate of soda alone, 46 bushels per acre, and 5,714 lbs. of straw. Mr. T. Hearns, of West Somerset, also made similar experiments the same year on wheat, with similar results, as follows : No manure, 371^ bushels per acre, and 3,624 lbs. of straw per acre. Mineral superphosphate, 38 bushels per acre, and 2,944 lbs. of straw per acre. 1% cwt. nitrate of soda alone, 46^ bushels per acre, and 4,298 lbs. of straw per acre. Mr. George Gibbons, East Somerset, the same year, with the same manures, on light, dry shallow soil, obtained the following results on wheat. No manure, 24^ bushels per acre, and 2,604 lbs. of straw per acre. Mineral superphosphate, 25 bushels per acre, and 2,621 lbs of straw per acre. ij£ cw *-- nitrate of soda alone, 31 bushels per acre, and 3,500 lbs. of straw per acre. 1 % cwt. nitrate of soda and 3 cwt. of superphosphate 35 J^ bushels per acre, and 4,032 lbs. of straw per acre. Mr. John Bennett, Herefordshire, obtained the fol- lowing results on a sandy loam, dry soil : Mineral superphosphate, 23^ bush, per acre, and 1,576 lbs. of straw. Mineral superphosphate and 1% cwt. nitrate of soda, 35^ bush, per acre, and 3,154 lbs. straw per acre. 20 Mr. C. J. Naylor, Montgomeryshire, on a rather heavy, retentive soil, obtained the following results : No manure, 23 bush, per acre, and 1,512 lbs. of straw per acre. Mineral superphosphate, 24^- bush, per acre, and 1,722 lbs. straw per acre. Mineral superphosphate and 1% nitrate of soda, 33J bush, per acre, and 2,720 lbs. of straw per acre. Mr. G. H. Morrell, Berks, on a heavy, wet soil, where weeds came up strongly and injured the crop, and where the frosts had damaged the plants, obtained the following results : No manure, 14^ bush, per acre, and 1,066 lbs. of straw per acre. Mineral superphosphate, 19^ bush, per acre, and 1,508 lbs. of straw per acre. Mineral superphosphate and 1% cwt. nitrate of soda, 271^ bush, per acre, and 2,646 lbs. of straw per acre. Viscount Hampden, Sussex, the same year obtained the following results : No manure, 33^ bush, per acre, and 3,348 lbs. of straw per acre. Mineral superphosphate, 36! bushels per acre, and 3,780 lbs. of straw per acre. Mineral superphosphate and i\ cwt. nitrate of soda, 48 y 2 bush, per acre, and 5,967 lbs. straw per acre. The above experiments of practical farmers, on a variety of soils, were made by the members of the 21 Bath and West of England Agricultural Society, and published in the Journal of the Society, Volume 18, 1887. In all cases the nitrate of soda, 140 lbs. to the acre, was sown broadcast as a top dressing on the growing wheat in the spring. Experiments on Wheat at Woburn. Next to those at Rothamsted, the most interesting and important series of experiments are those made under the auspices of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, on the Duke of Bedford's estate at Woburn. The soil at Rothamsted is a rather stiff clay; that at Woburn a very light, sandy loam, lying on a sandy subsoil ; and yet, notwithstanding this radical difference in the soil, the results of the application of manures is essentially the same. The experiments on wheat were commenced in the stack-yard field at Woburn in 1877, and wheat has been grown year after year on the same land every year since. In company with Dr. Gilbert and the lamented Dr. Voelcker, we examined these experiments in 1879. They are admirably designed, and very carefully and accurately conducted, but the season was so cold arid wet that we think it best to omit the results for that year. Such a gloomy season is never known in our bright, sunny climate. We feel very confident that nitrate of soda will produce a greater effect in this country than in England, provided the soil is clean and well drained where needed, and is not deficient in mineral plant food. Experiments on winter wheat, year after year on the same land at woburn. Description of Manures Yield per Acre of Dressed Wheat in b'shls. per Acre. 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 21 22 39 1886 13 15 31 1887 22 18 40 1888 25 28 45 13 15 33 16 17 38 23 22 43 II II (3) Same as No. 2 and 275 lbs. 31 It should not be forgotten that these are the re- sults with nitrate of soda on wheat grown year after year, continuously on the same land. In such con- ditions unquestionably more or less of the nitrogen is lost, and consequently we do not get as profitable results from its use as in ordinary rotation on a well- managed and properly-cultivated farm. One thing is absolutely proved, however, and that is that wheat must have nitrogen. Nitrate of Soda for Barley. In the United States nitrate of soda can be used with great profit on barley. For malting purposes it is very desirable to get bar- ley of the best quality, and it must be harvested with care, so that it shall not be " stained " by rain or by contact with green weeds. 23 For these reasons barley cannot be grown to advan- tage in recently-settled sections of the country where a rough and somewhat careless system of farming is necessarily in vogue. The barley grower, therefore, is not subject to such sharp competition as the growers of wheat, maize and oats. It is not an uncommon thing in the newer portions of the United States for a bushel of good malting barley to sell for as much as two bushels of wheat. The United States export wheat, but import barley. To grow a maximum crop of barley we must in some way furnish the soil with nitrates. One hundred and twenty-five pounds of nitrate of soda contains nitrogen enough for 19 bushels of bar- ley and 1,000 pounds of straw. If an application of nitrate of soda produces a greater increase than this, as is sometimes the case, it is due to the fact that the nitrate gives the young bar- ley plants a good start in the spring and thus enables the roots to take more nitrogen from the soil. If 125 pounds of nitrate of soda produce a less in- crease than 19 bushels, the whole of the nitrate is not appropriated. In the United States we almost invariably sow wheat after barley. In a few weeks after the barley is harvested, the ground is occupied by the growing wheat plants, and we should expect the wheat to get 24 some benefit from any nitrate left in the soil by the barley. A few years ago, Sir John B. Lawes, Bart., as the result of his own experiments, recommended farmers on certain soils in England, to grow barley year after year on the same land, keeping up the fertility of the soil by the use of nitrate of soda and superphosphate. In Lawes & Gilbert's celebrated experiments on bar- ley grown year after year on the same land, nitrate of soda was not used till 1868. Previous to that, salts of ammonia were used. In 1869 the following results were obtained : No manure 1 5 J - ! bushels per acre y/z cwt. superphosphate of lime 18^ " 3}^ cwt. superphosphate of lime and 275 pounds NITRATE OF SODA 48^ " " In other words, 275 pounds of nitrate and 3^ cwt. of superphosphate produce an increase of 30 bushels of barley over the plot dressed with superphosphate. The 275 pounds of nitrate contained 41 pounds of nitrogen. The 30 bushels of barley and straw con- tained 34 pounds of nitrogen. This is a loss of only seven pounds of nitrogen per acre. Of 100 pounds of nitrogen in the nitrate of soda 84 pounds are recovered in the first crop of barley. For 16 years, 1868-83, the following average results were obtained on barley at Rothamsted : No manure 14^ bushels per acre. 3J^ cwt. superphosphate of lime 18% " " 3^4 cwt. superphosphate of lime and 275 lbs. nitrate of soda 44 " " 25 This is an average increase of 29 bushels of barley over the unmanured plot and 25 bushels over the plot dressed with superphosphate. In other words, 275 pounds nitrate of soda for 16 years in succession on the same land, give us a yearly increase of 25 bushels of barley. Of 100 pounds of nitrogen applied in the nitrate of soda, we get back 72 pounds in the crop. And this, let it be observed, not for one year, but for sixteen annual crops of barley in succession. In 1883, the thirty-second annual crop of barley in succession on the same land, the yield on the plots we have described was as follows : No manure i6^f bushels per acre. 7>Yz cwt. superphosphate of lime 22^6 " 3% cwt. superphosphate of lime and 200 pounds ammonia-salts 49 K " 3)4 cwt. superphosphate of lime and 275 pounds nitrate of soda 53/^ " The same quantity of nitrogen in the nitrate of soda produces nearly four bushels per acre more than the ammonia salts. The 275 pounds of nitrate of soda produces 37 bushels increase over the unmanured plot, and nearly 3 1 bushels over the plot dressed with superphosphate. With 14 tons of barn-yard manure applied every year to the barley for 20 years (1852-1871) the nitrogen recovered in the increase of barley and straw was only 10^ per cent. In the experiments at Woburn made in behalf of the Royal Agricultural Society of England by Dr. 26 Voelcker the following results were obtained on barley in 1878 : GRAIN. STRAW. Mineral manures 233/ bush. 15K cwt - Mineral manures and 200 lbs. Ammonia-salts. 365/ 29 Mineral manures and 275 lbs. nitrate of soda . 42^ 28% $}4 tons farm yard manure 22 3/ 16% The 200 lbs. of ammonia-salts contained the same quantity of nitrogen as 275 lbs. nitrate of soda. The z, l / 2 tons farm yard manure contained more than double the amount of nitrogen contained in the 27s lbs. of the nitrate of soda. Another interesting experiment was made at Woburn. Clover was fed off by sheep, and on one acre the sheep had no other food than the pasture. On the other acre, the sheep had 672 lbs. of decorti- cated cotton-cake. Both acres were then plowed and sown to wheat. On the acre which had no cotton-cake, artificial ma- nures containing (in the form of nitrate of soda) as much nitrogen as the 672 lbs. of cotton-cake were sown as a top dressing on the wheat in the spring of 1878. The following is the result : 672 lbs. cotton-cake 372/ bush. Wheat. 275 lbs. nitrate of soda and minerals equal to that contained in 672 lbs. of cotton-cake 4°!/ " " Similar, but still more striking results were obtained with barley following a crop of mangold-wurzel. The mangolds were fed off on the land where they grew. The mangolds on plot I, had been manured with dung made by animals receiving 3230 lbs. of straw as 27 litter, 5000 lbs. mangolds, 1250 lbs. wheat straw-chaff and 1000 lbs. cotton-cake. The mangolds on plot 2 were grown by dung made as above, with the exception of the cotton-cake. In- stead of the cotton-cake, artificial manures containing two thirds as much nitrogen (248 lbs. nitrate of soda) as the 1000 lbs. of cotton-cake were sown. Barley was sown the next spring. On plot 1, where the i,oco lbs. of cotton seed manure had been used for the mangolds, no manure was used. On the other plot, artificial manures containing nitrogen (124 lbs. nitrate of soda) equal to one-third as much nitrogen as the manure from 1,000 lbs. cotton-cake were sown on the barley in the spring. The result is as follows : Plot 1 — Cotton-cake acre 37 bushels barley. Plot 2 — 124 lbs. Nitrate of Soda 49^ " " This is a remarkable result. There was no more plant-food applied to one crop than the other. The only difference is that the nitrogen in the 124 lbs. of nitrate is in a soluble and readily'available condition. This small dressing of 124 lbs. of nitrate of soda per acre, produced an increase of 12^ bushels of dressed barley. We have given the results of the experiments on barley on the sandy soil at Woburn, in 1878, the year previous to our visit there. The experiments have been continued ever since, barley being sown year after year on the same land, 28 and the same kinds and quantities of fertilizers being used each year on the same plots. The following table gives the results : EXPERIMENTS ON BARLEY GROWN YEAR AFTER YEAR ON THE SAME LAND AT WOBURN. Description of Manures and quantities per acre. Yield per acre of dressed Barley in bushels. No Manure Mineral Manures Mineral Manures and 275 lbs. Nitrate of Soda. . . 1880 21 22^ 49 1881 33 33^ 53 1882 23 5°'A 1883 22^ 28 55M" 1884 33X 32 5794 1885 22^ 21 50# 1886 18^ 4°% 1887 20^ 22 43^ 1888 20 45 'A We have not space to make any comment on these figures ; neither is it necessary ; they speak for them- selves. It should be remembered, however, that the bushels of " dressed " or cleaned barley often weigh as much as 55 lbs. per bushel, while the legal weight of a bushel with us is only 48 lbs. In 1889, Professor Edward Kinch, of the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, England, made a valuable series of experiments on barley. The plots were one-tenth of an acre each, and the experiments were made in duplicate. One plot with no manure, produced 19^5 bushels per acre. One plot with 2 cwt. nitrate of soda alone, produced 38% bushels per acre. The other plot, no manure, produced 21 5/% bushels per acre, 2 cwt. nitrate of Soda alone, produced 43^ bushels per acre. 2 9 The 43^ bushels by actual weight, were equal to a little over 50^ of our bushels of 48 lbs. Nitrate of Soda for Oats. The results of Lawes and Gilberts' experiments in 1 869, on oats, are as follows : Grain. Straw. No manure 36^ bushels. 19^ cwt. 550 lbs. NITRATE OF SODA 62X " 42^ " Mr. Charles Fairchild, of Middletown, Conn., made the following experiment on oats in 1881 : Grain. Straw. (1) No manure 2 7 T 8 ff bushels. 1180 lbs. (2) 300 lbs. Superphosphate ... 33tit " J 8oo " (3) 300 lbs. and mixed minerals 33j 8 ij " 2280 " (4) Same manure as No. 3 and 150 lbs. of NITRATE OF SODA 54^ " 3500 " Here 150 lbs. nitrate of soda gave an increase of 20^ bushels of oats and 1220 lbs. of straw. Experiments on oats were made in 1888, at the Dar- lington and Spartenburg farms of the South Carolina Experiment Station. Nitrate of soda and superphosphate and potash in- creased the yield over the unmanured plots over 400^. In the Experiment Station Record for January, 1890, issued by the Department of Agriculture at Washing- ton, Prof. Atwater, referring to these experiments, says; " A comparison of the tests conducted on both farms indicate that the inorganic nitrogen (nitrate of soda) gave nearly 100$ more increase of yield than the or- ganic, and nearly 50$ more than both forms used to- gether." This result will surprise no one when it is 30 known that organic nitrogen must be converted into nitrates before it can be appropriated by the plants. This change will take place in the soil, but frequently too late in the season to be of much benefit to wheat, barley and oats. On our own farm we drill in with the oats from 1 50 to 200 lbs. of nitrate of soda, mixed with 150 to 200 lbs. of superphosphate per acre. In 1888, we harvested from 21 acres, 1475 bushels " thrasher's measure." On one field of 7}^ acres, accurately measured, we had 610 bushels, or 84 bushels " thrasher's measure " per acre. As the oats weighed 40 lbs. per bushel, this is over one hundred bushels per acre at the legal weight of 32 lbs. per bushel. The land was well drained and clean. After the oats were harvested, the land was plowed and sown to winter wheat, seeded down with grass and clover. The wheat was a fine crop, and the grass and clover, the next year, 1890, simply grand. With such a rotation, there is little chance of losing any of the nitrates from leaching. Mr. Patrick Dickson, of Barnhill, Laurancekirk, N. B., in a letter to the " Scotsman " newspaper, of Dec. 10th, 1889, gives the result of a trial of 112 lbs. of ni- trate of soda per acre, on Black Tartarian oats in 1889. Without nitrate the yield was 36 bushels per acre ; with 112 lbs. of nitrate of soda per acre, 64 bushels per acre. The oats weighed 41 lbs. per bushel, so that at our legal weight of 32 lbs. per bushel, the yield with the nitrate was 82 bushels per acre. 3i Nitrate of Soda for Potatoes. In proportion to the nitrogen which they contain, potatoes often command a much higher price than or- dinary farm crops. And it is found that maximum crops cannot be grown without a direct or indirect ap- plication of available nitrogen to the soil. The relative high price of potatoes, therefore, often renders the use of nitrate of soda exceedingly profitable. 250 lbs. of nitrate of soda are capable of producing an increase of 1,000 lbs. of tops and 184 bushels of potatoes of 56 lbs. to the bushel. In Lawes & Gilbert's experiments on potatoes grown year after year on the same land, and manured each year with the same kind and quantities of fertilizers, the following results were obtained : YIELD PER ACRE OF " GOOD POTATOES " IN BUSHELS OF 56 LBS. PER BUSHEL. 3. Mine'I Man. Incr'se of "good 2. Mineral Ma- same as No. 2 potatoes"from 1. No Manure. nures. and 550 lbs. Nitrate Soda. the use of Ni- trate of Soda. 1876.. 132K 207^ 275K 68 1877.. 102 133^ 296K 163 1878 . 93 'A 136 303 167 1879.. 23 33^ 76^ 43 1880. . 29 I34K 247 112^ 1881.. 74 K 229^ 385 155^ 1882.. 7°y 2 175 273 98 1883.. ss'A 179 299 120 1884. . soy 2 146 180^ 34K 1885.. 33K 80 153 73 1886.. 27K 85 132K 47^ 1887.. 47 H 87^ 196 108 % 1888.. 25^ 65 H 125K 60 32 Growing potatoes year after year on the same soil is not economical. These experiments show that potatoes require a liberal, or perhaps we might say an excessive, supply of nitrates in the soil,the unused portion of which ; when potatoes are grown after potatoes, would be lost during the heavy rains of the winter and early spring. To raise large and profitable crops, we should use manure rich in nitrate, and as soon as the potatoes are dug, sow some crop that will take up the nitrate that is left in the soil. If an early, or a medium-early, variety is planted, the potatoes can be dug early enough to allow sowing winter wheat to be seeded down with grass and clover ; or on very light sandy soil not suit- able for wheat,winter rye can be sown and seeded down with grass and clover. In this way there will be little or no risk of losing nitrate, and we can use it freely, with other ingredients of plant-food, for potatoes. Again, it should be remarked that the soil at Rotham- sted, is too heavy for potatoes. In unfavorable sea- sons in particular, this fact tells heavily against the crop. On the whole, however, it seems quite clear, especially if the potatoes are followed by some crop that would appropriate the unused nitrate, that nitrate of soda can be used at the ordinary price of potatoes, with very decided profit. Mr. E. S. Carman, editor of the Rural New Yorker, made some experiments on potatoes on sandy land, which, he says, " was so poor that it would not grow good weeds," with the following results : 33 i. — No manure (average of four plots) 74 bushels per acre. 2. —300 lbs. Sulphate of Potash 95 " " 3. — 400 lbs. Superphosphate 103 " " 4.— 200 lbs. NITRATE OF SODA i 4I " " Here 200 lbs. of nitrate of soda, alone, gave an in- crease of 67 bushels of potatoes per acre. The next year on richer land, the following results were obtained: j. — 400 lbs. Superphosphate, and 300 lbs. Sulphate of Potash 245 bushels per acre. 2. — Same manure as plot 1 and 200 lbs. Nitrate of Soda 348 bushels per acre. Nitrate of Soda for Rye. So far as chemical composition is concerned there is little difference between wheat and rye. Rye is the hardier and more easily grown grain, and usually sells at a lower price than wheat. Of late years, however, there has been in many places less difference than formerly. Where rye straw is in demand, a crop of rye brings in as much money per acre as wheat, and frequently much more. A direct application of nitrate of soda to rye is sometimes quite profitable. But as a rule farmers use rye as a scavenger to pick up plant-food that would otherwise run to waste. On my own farm I sow rye on any land not wanted for any other crop, in the autumn. The rye can be sown earlier and later than wheat. Sown in August it has plenty of time before winter sets in to take up any nitrates that remain in the soil from the preceding crop or that may be formed from the nitrogenous matter in the soil. 34 The rye may be pastured in the autumn or in the spring and afterwards allowed to produce a crop of grain, or the land may be plowed in the spring and sown to some other crop. If a large crop of rye and straw is desired, sow broadcast on the rye, early in the spring, 200 lbs. of nitrate of soda per acre. On poor, sandy soils, rye is often sown in the au- tumn and the land seeded at the same time with grass and with clover in the spring. In such a case nitrate of soda can be used to great advantage. It not only helps the rye, but it gives the grass and clover a good start and little or no nitrate will be lost. Nitrate of Soda for Buckwheat. Nitrate of soda and superphosphate in equal parts have a remarkably beneficial effect on buckwheat, even when used at the rate of only 100 lbs. per acre. Sow broadcast at the time of sowing the seed and harrow them well into the ground,, or drill them in with the seed. If the land is to be seeded down with the buckwheat, sow not less than the 200 lbs. of the mixture per acre. Sow the grass and clover seed at the same time the buckwheat is sown, say in this sec- tion the first of July. Nitrate of Soda for Sugar Beets and Mangold Wurzel. In the celebrated experiments of Lawes & Gilbert at Rothamsted, with White Silesia Sugar Beets the following results were obtained : 35 First Season, 1871. Leaves. No Manure, 40 cwt. 550 lbs. Nitrate of Soda, 112 " 400 lbs. Ammonia-Salts 96 " Second Season, 1872. Leaves. No Manure 33 cwt. 550 lbs. Nitrate of Soda, 126 " 400 lbs. Ammonia-Salts, 93 " Third Season, 1873. Leaves. No manure 31 cwt. 550 pounds nitrate of soda 131 " 400 " Ammonia-Salts 76 " The next season, 1874, the nitrate of soda was not used and the yield immediately fell to 124 bushels of roots per acre. It was also omitted the next year, and the following year and every year since, the land was sown with yel- low globe mangold-wurzels, with the following results : No Manure. Ammonia-Salts. Nitrate of Soda Bush. Per Acre. Bush. Per Acre. Bush. Per Acre. Roots. Bu. of 56 Lbs 302 bus. per acre 886 " 612 " " Roots. 314 bus. per acre 854 " " 606 " Roots. 202 bu. per acre 570 " 366 " bom COW 1871 302 I872 314 1873 202 1876 260 1877 218 1878 140 1879 64 ■{ 1880 180 I8HI. 1882. 1883. (.1888. 176 184 196 60 612 606 366 566 352 174 144 394 150 246 332 184 886 854 570 826 674 404 194 560 452 660 748 638 No other experiments in agriculture have shown more remarkable'results as those embodied in the above 36 little table. But our space will not permit us to dis- cuss them. They speak for themselves. The salts of ammonia furnished the same quantity of nitrogen as the nitrate of soda. It will be noticed that the nitrate is far more effective than the ammonia. The Essex County (England) Agricultural Society,, made some experiments in 1887, on Mangold Wurzel, with the following results : Roots Per Acre in Bush, of 56 Lbs. (1) No manure 388 (2) 4 cwt. nitrate OF SODA alone 5333^ (3) 12 tons dung and 3 cwt. superphosphate 419 (4) Same as plot 3 and 2 cwt. nitrate of soda 626 (5) 3 cwt. Superphosphate and 4 cwt. nitrate of soda 680 The report figures up the cost of the extra yield of mangolds, calling the dung worth $1.25 per ton, as- follows : Cost Per Bushel, Plot 3, with dung and superphosphate 18 cts. Plot 5, nitrate and superphosphate 4 1-3 " " The season," the report says, "was terribly dry." During the six months, May to October, inclusive,, only 7f inches of rain fell. The Mangolds were analyzed and proved to be un- usually rich in dry matter and sugar. Nitrate of Soda for Beet Sugar. In the experiments at Rothamsted just alluded to, the beets grown by the different fertilizers were analized. In the sugar beets grown without manure in 1871, one thousand pound.; contained 174!- pounds of total dry matter and 125 pounds of sugar. 37 Grown with nitrate of soda, iooo pounds contained J S3i pounds of dry matter and 103J pounds of sugar. The dry matter of the beets contained : No manure, 71 per cent, of sugar; nitrate of soda, 67^ per cent, of sugar. The manufacturers of beet sugar, who buy beets by the ton, prefer beets containing the highest percentage of sugar, and these are grown on land in rather poor condition. But the farmers who grow the beets find their profits in larger crops. At Rothamsted, the no-manure plot produced 302 bushels of beets per acre, and the plot adjoining, dressed with nitrate of soda, 886 bushels per acre. The amount of sugar per acre is as follows : Sugar Per Acre from White Silesia Beets. No manure 2,115 pounds per acre. Nitrate of soda 5, 145 " " The nitrate of soda, without any other manure, pro- duced an increase of three thousand and thirty pounds (3,030) of sugar per acre. These white Silesian Beets at Rothamsted were grown for cattle and not for sugar making. It is well known that careful selection of the seed, the addition of superphosphate and potash to the nitrate of soda, hilling up the roots and rather thick planting, so as to avoid the production of too large roots, are favorable to a higher percentage of sugar. It has been clearly shown, furthermore, that with the proper precautions, nitrate of soda can be used on beets grown for sugar without reducing the percentage of sugar in the beets, 38 and at the same time greatly increasing the yield and profit per acre. This is not the place to discuss the question, but we are fully convinced that should the time come, as we are confident it will, when we shall grow our own sugar, and principally from beets, it will unquestionably be found, in our dry and sunny climate, that the beets cannot be grown profitably without the use of nitrate of soda as a fertilizer. We have grown beets for many years on our own farm for stock, and find that even so small a dressing as a mixture of ioo pounds of nitrate of soda and ioo pounds superphosphate drilled in with the seed has a most astonishing effect on the crop. It is claimed that our land is rich enough to grow beets for sugar. In one sense this may be true, but never- theless it will be found that the beets need a little ni- trate, at any rate, to give them a good start. In order to grow a large and profitable crop, it is necessary to 'sow early, and even though there may be plenty of nitrogen in the soil, it is not in an available condition early in the spring. Nitrification will not take place until the soil is warm. A little nitrate of soda has a wonderful effect early in the season. The roots follow the nitrate and penetrate deeper into the soil and are not so liable to be checked by subsequent drouth. It is greatly to be regretted that the effect of nitrate of soda on sugar beets is not as generally known in this country as in Germany, France and Belgium. The principal risk that our manufacturers of beet sugar 39 run is, that farmers will find the crop at the prices paid unprofitable, and will consequently quit the business. Judging from our own experience, we are confident that beets cannot be grown profitably, at the prices paid by the sugar factories, unless nitrate of soda is used. We are equally confident that by the use of nitrate of soda, beets, at the price the sugar makers can well afford to pay, will be found far more profitable than any other farm crop. The beets will bring in large direct profit, and the thorough cultivation re- quired will clean the land, and the use of nitrate of soda will add much to its fertility. But those who at- tempt to grow them without the use of nitrate of soda, will almost certainly fail to get either direct or indirect profit from the crop. Nitrate of Soda on Swede Turnips. Swede turnips or ruta bagas are a very profitable crop. The price in market is rarely less than 25 cents per bushel, and often much higher. If not sold, they are excellent food for horses and sheep and can be fed on the farm with advantage. Swede turnips require a well prepared soil in good condition, and in such a case nitrate of soda will prove a very profitable application. On the farm of the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, England, the lamented Dr. Voelcker ob- tained the following results on Swede turnips in 1859 : 40 BUSHELS OF SWEDE TURNIPS PER ACRE. No manure 5^'A bushels 112 lbs. Sulphate of Ammonia &3° 112 lbs. Nitrate of Soda 739 Here it will be seen that H2 lbs. of nitrate of soda alone gave an increase of 1 50 bushels of Swede turnips per acre. In some other experiments Dr. Voelcker found that ammonia-salts retarded the growth of Swede turnips while the plants were young. The annual report of the Norfolk (England) Cham- ber of Agriculture, January, 1890, gives the results of a careful experiment made by Mr. Holmes of Brooke Farms, on Swede turnips, in 1889, as follows: Roots per acre. (1) No manure, average of two plots 236 bushels. (2) 4 cwt. Superphosphate 340 ' ' (3) 4 cwt. Superphosphate, 112 lbs. Muriate of Potash, and 112 lbs. Sulphate of Ammonia 321 >£ " (4) 4 cwt. Superphosphate and 168 lbs. NITRATE OF SODA 506^ " This experiment would seem to confirm the obser- vation of Dr. Voelcker, that sulphate of ammonia (or muriate of potash) may do more harm than good. Mr. Patrick Dickson made an experiment in 1889, on Swede turnips, in a field of " rather poor loam " manured with twenty loads per acre of barnyard manure, with and without nitrate of soda, with the following results : Per acre. No artificial manure 620 bushels, 1% cwt. NITRATE OF SODA 1^70 41 Nitrate of Soda for Grass. There are numerous cases where nitrate of soda can be used with very great advantage and profit as a top dressing for grass. Milkmen who sell milk in our cities, know the great inconvenience and loss arising from a failure of pasture or green fodder from drouth. Farmers who raise early lambs for the butchers can well afford to spend a little money for nitrate of soda, if it will give them a good bite of grass early in the season for the ewes and lambs — and that it will cer- tainly do. In the United States, such seasons as that of 1870 in England are the rule rather than the exception, and the following results from the use of nitrate of soda on permanent meadow at Rothamsted in the dry season of 1870, are of great interest. Hay per acre. 1 No manure 644 lbs. 2 300 lbs. Sulp. Potash, 100 lbs. Sulp. Soda, ioo lbs. Sulp. Magnesia, 3^ cwt. Superphosphate of Lime 1968 " 3 Same mineral manures as Plot 2 and 400 lbs. Ammonia Salts 3306 " 4 Same mineral manures as Plot 2 and 550 lbs. of Nitrate of Soda 6300 " It will be seen that 550 lbs. of nitrate of soda give an increase over Plot 2 of 4332 lbs. of hay. The same amount of nitrogen, but in the form of am- monia salts, with an equal amount of minerals, on Plot 3, produced about 3000 lbs. less hay per acre than when nitrogen was applied as nitrate of soda. 42 In 1868, the nitrate of soda and minerals produced an increase over the unmanured plot of 57^8 lbs. of hay per acre ; and 3464 lbs. over Plot 2, dressed with minerals; and 1106 lbs. more than the same amount of nitrogen (and minerals) applied as ammonia-salts. In 1867, Plot 4, with 550 lbs. nitrate of soda and minerals, produced 7188 lbs.; in 1868, 7728 lbs.; and in 1869, 8526 lbs., the first cutting of hay per acre. It is clear that there are times when nitrate of soda is a very profitable top-dressing for grass land. Its use insures a crop in dry seasons, when grass and hay are so much needed. Since the above was written we have received the following interesting letter from Sir John B. Lawes, Bart: ROTHAMSTED, St. Albans, March 17, 1890. Dear Sir : — I do not approve of partial (or "frac- tional") applications of nitrates, as they tend to keep the roots of plants close to the surface of the soil. Where the food is, there are the roots. In our barley experiments, the whole of the nitrate is sown the first week in March, before the seed is sown. In your country I should be disposed to sow nitrate very early in the spring. At equal prices for nitrogen I certainly prefer NI- TRATE to salts of ammonia. .The superiority on pas- ture grasses is most decided, and in dry seasons when the grass upon the ammonia plots is quite burned up, there is always plenty of grass where the nitrate is 43 used. We had a great drouth in 1870, and we had no grass anywhere except upon the Nitrate plots. We found roots four feet deep from the surface, evidently following the nitrate, and, of course, getting water from the subsoil. I think it is tolerably clear that all our agricultural crops, except the leguminosae, take their nitrogen out of the soil in the form of nitric acid. So much is lib- erated by nitrification of the organic matter of the soil ; of this the crop takes what it can ; the weeds take another portion, and the rain washes away a third por- tion. If our soils do not liberate as much nitric acid as we want, we purchase so much more. Of what we purchase, not more than one-half, or perhaps less, is taken up in the crop. You may consider that a crop of wheat, as we carry it into our stack, contains one per cent, of nitrogen. 100 lbs. of nitrate of soda contains 16 lbs. of nitro- gen. It ought therefore to increase our wheat by 16 bushels and 1,600 lbs. of straw; but if we get an in- crease of 8 bushels we may consider ourselves fortu- nate. The weeds take up a great deal of our nitrogen ; it is not lost, but to turn nitric acid into organic nitro- gen, which some day will again become nitric acid, is not a profitable process. Yours truly, J. B. Lawes. Experiments on grass at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, gave the following results in 1889 : 44 Hay per Acre. No Manure 23X cwts - 5 cwt. Superphosphate 3°% 5 cwt. Superphosphate and 2%. cwt. NITRATE OF SODA 41^ " Kainit (potash, magnesia and soda) either alone or in combination with other fertilizers, had little or no effect. " In all cases," says Professor Kinch, "when the effects of the nitrogen in ammonia sulphate and in Sodium Nitrate are comparable, SODIUM NITRATE has given a large increase in the crop of hay." This point seems to be established beyond all question. Nitrate of Soda for Hops. The remarks just made in regard to grass and hay apply equally to hops. The yield and the price of hops fluctuate greatly, and it is often a matter of great importance to be able to furnish an extra supply of immediately available plant food. Nitrate of soda in the hands of an intelligent hop-grower is of the great- est value. It should always form part of all the ma- nures applied after the plants are set out. It is the only manure we can depend on for quickly reaching the roots in the subsoil. There are instances where a top dressing of nitrate of soda to hops has given almost fabulous profits. Nitrate of Soda for Cotton. In 1888 Dr. J. M. McBryde, Director of the South Carolina Experiment Stations, made on the Darlington farm, on the Spartanburg farm and on the Columbia farm, some interesting and instructive experiments with nitrate of soda, superphosphate and potash as 45 fertilizers for cotton. Eight different plots on each farm were left unmanured in different parts of the fields to test the inequalities of the soil, and the plots having fertilizers were duplicated. Great care was evidently taken to insure accuracy and the results will be studied with interest by cotton planters. The following table gives the actual results of the principal experiments on the Spartanburg farm : (By " Seed Cotton " is meant the cotton and seed as picked from the plant. The "lint" is the cotton after the seed has been removed by the gin.) Manures per Acre. Seed Cotton. Lint. Per Acre. Per Acre, i. No Manure 199 lbs. 65 lbs. 2. 100 lbs. Muriate of Potash 262 " 86 " 3. 160 " Superphosphate 347 " 113 " 4.(100 " Muriate of Potash, ) ,, 116 " (160 " Superphosphate. (■•■•■ • 3 " ( 100 " Muriate of Potash, ) 5. ■< 160 " Superphosphate, >■ 796 " 209 " (330 " Nitrate of Soda ) ( 200 " Muriate of Potash, ) 6. -1 320 " Superphosphate, [■ 842 " 275 " ( 330 " Nitrate of Soda. ) Similar experiments were made the same year at the Columbia farm. The following table gives the results : Manures per Acre. Seed Cotton. Lint. Per Acre. Per Acre. 1 . No Manure 244 lbs. 79 lbs. 2 . 100 lbs. Muriate of Potash 360 " 117 3. 160 " Superphosphate 39 2 " I2 7 ( 100 " Muriate of Potash ) « .. 4 " ( 160 " Superphosphate. J 4=/ * y (100 " Muriate of Potash, ) 5.^160 " Superphosphate, [• 672 " 218 " (330 " Nitrate of Soda ) (200 " Muriate of Potash, J 6.\ 320 " Superphosphate, !■ 75° " 2 43 ' (330 " Nitrate of Soda ) 4 6 Similar experiments the same year, on the Darling- ton farm, gave the following results : Manures per Acre. Seed Cotton. Lint. Per Acre. Per Acre, i . No Manure 266 lbs. 87 lbs. 2. 100 lbs. Muriate of Potash 330 " 108 " 3. 160 " Superphosphate... 555 " 181 " j 100 " Muriate of Potash, ) , „ ., 4' ( 160 " Superphosphate, J' - -47 (100 " Muriate of Potash, } 5.-] 160 •' Superphosphate, h 927 " 303 " ( 330 " Nitrate of Soda. ) I 200 " Muriate of Potash, 1 6. -j 320 " Superphosphate, !■ 862 " 282 ' ( 330 " Nitrate of Soda. 1 Dr. McBryde states that " the soils of the three farms were sadly out of condition " and the early spring was so cold and backward that it was difficult to get a good stand of plants and " the later season was so unfavorable that the action of the fertilizers was seriously interfered with and checked." It seems quite clear, however, that Nitrate of Soda in connec- tion with phosphate and potash is a very effective fertilizer for cotton. Mr. J. Meekins Woodley, Clio, S. C, writes : " Two hundred pounds of nitrate of soda per acre, kept cotton green and growing for me last year (1888) during the long August drouth, while the cotton by it, without nitrate of soda failed. As for nitrate of soda being an exhauster of land, I think it is a mistaken idea, altogether. I used 100 lbs. per acre last year, and I have better cotton on the same land this year (1889) than ever before. The best corn I have this year is after cotton that had 200 lbs. of nitrate of soda last 47 year — better than other corn in the same piece with exactly the same showing this year, without nitrate last year." Mr. E. T. Stackhouse, Little Rock, S. C, writes : " The general belief here is that nitrate of soda should be applied to all crops during a rainy spell. James H. Manning last year (1888) commenced its application to his Calhoun field of cotton, which is very uniform in character and condition. He applied a portion while the ground was damp and the remainder after the earth dried off. The first paid an immense profit, while the latter seemed to do no good. I could cite other instances nearly as marked. Mr. R. P. Hanne said its benefits were apparent the second year. In the vicinity of Clio and Hebron, where it has been used most liberally, they are increasing the acreage application. It is said to pay best on moderately light lands." Mr. Allen Edens, Kentyre, S. C, made some exper- iments with nitrate of soda on two acres of cotton in 1887. " I began the first row," he writes, " with 50 lbs. per acre and increased, to last row, to 400 lbs. per acre and made 3400 lbs. of seed cotton and the next two acres, with equal land and fertilizers, except nitrate of soda, made 2200 lbs. seed cotton." This is a large increase from the use of 1 50 lbs. (on the average) of nitrate of soda per acre. Mr. Edens remarks, " the more you put on the better it will pay." — That is, we suppose, up to 400 lbs. per acre. In 1888, Mr. Edens 4 8 used it on five acres of cotton, at the rate of IOO lbs. per acre. " The result was 250 lbs. per acre in favor of the nitrate of soda." "This year," (1889) Mr. Edens writes, " I am using more nitrate of soda than I ever have. I applied it to oats and know my crop was doub- led by it. I have fifty acres of cotton that I put it on before planting and it is far ahead of where none was used. I like it best, so far, applied in spring." J. L. Napier, Blenheim, S. C, has been using nitrate of soda for twelve years. He persuaded one of his neighbors to try it. He applied it at the rate of IOO lbs. per acre on one row of cotton that was grow- ing on very poor, sandy land. " It almost doubled the yield of cotton." The next year he put the field in corn. " The row of corn," he says, " where the nitrate of soda was used the year before was twice as good as any row near it. The effects of that applica- tion of nitrate of soda could be seen for several crops. The only way to permanently improve land is to fill it with humus. Nitrate of soda will do that better than anything I know of." Dr. McBryde's Experiments on Cotton in 1889. Dr. McBryde kindly sends me the results, not yet published, of his experiments on cotton for 1889. The following table gives the actual yield of lint in lbs.'.per acre on the three different farms : 49 tut a a O m O [0 MANURES PER ACRE. a . .2 rt J3 a a 3 S3 .a s ba rt 00 a 1 - 00 rage 3 farm 1888. tr>« •— ' HH a- «■> „ c Q >■ ja — >%" a> <" <** 68 29 68 76 96 57% 72 77 103% z. ioo lbs. Muriate of Potash 52 151 38 127 i°5>i 140K ( ioo lbs. Muriate of Potash. . 158% 190 33 155 126 ( ioo lbs. Muriate of Potash. . ( 330 lbs. NITRATE OF SODA. . 289 153 277 239% 243K ( 200 lbs. Muriate of Potash . . 6. i 320 lbs. Superphosphate. 37i 113 277 253% 266% ( 330 lbs. NITRATE OF SODA. . We have space for no comments on these interest- ing results. But when it is remembered that the ex- periments are made with the greatest care and accu- racy, and on three different farms and for two years in succession, they will command the attention of cotton planters. Evidently cotton needs nitrogen, and ni- trate OF SODA will furnish it in the most available condition. On run down land, by the aid of super- phosphate, potash and nitrate of soda, paying crops of cotton can be grown at once. But this is not all. By proper management and rotation of crops it is quite certain that the use of these fertilizers must steadily improve the condition of the land. The two great products of southern agriculture, lint and cot- ton-seed oil, contain, in comparison with the whole plant, an extremely small proportion of nitrogen, phos- phoric acid and potash and, consequently, the use of 5o these manures must make the land richer year by year. Nitrate of soda not only increases the lint which is sold but it also increases, in equal or greater pro- portion, the leaves, stalks and roots of the cotton plant and these are plowed under for manure. Hence it may well be true, as Mr. Napier says, " the only way to permanently improve land is to fill it with humus, and NITRATE OF SODA will do that better than any- thing I know of." Nitrate of Soda for Tobacco. Nitrate of soda can be used by the tobacco grower with great profit. In the seed bed, in conjunction with wood ashes or with potash salts, lime and phos- phates, it enables him to make the soil "as rich as a hot bed," if he so desires, without weeds. By mixing some dry, sifted moss with the light sandy soil of. the bed, and keeping the plants watered with a weak solu- tion of nitrate of soda they will not only grow rapidly, but the leaves will be full of sap, rich in nitrates, and the numerous small fibrous roots will so cling to the moss that they can be transplanted with entire safety in the dryest weather. Furthermore, nitrate of soda is so soluble and so rapidly absorbed by the plants that there is much reason to expect that the tobacco grower can so use it as to increase the growth, not only without injury to the quality of the tobacco, but with actual and decided improvement in this respect. Unfortunately this sub- ject, up to the present time, has attracted little atten- 5i tion. So far as we have any experiments, however, they seem to show that nitrate of soda particularly deserves the attention of the intelligent tobacco grower. At the Kentucky Experiment Station some valuable experiments were made last year, 1889, on Burley tobacco. The land is what is termed " a blue grass soil," derived from the lower Silurian limestone, rich in phosphoric acid. The subsoil is a light colored clay, so retentive as to make the soil deficient in nat- ural drainage. The land is worn, having been in culti- vation for many years, without manure. We infer from the report of Dr. Scovel that the land has not been underdrained, and if, as he states, " the soil is deficient in natural drainage," the nitrate of soda can- not be expected to produce its full effect. Neverthe- less the experiments show that nitrate of soda, even on this soil, can be used on tobacco with great profit. The tobacco plants were set in rows three feet apart, and twenty-two inches apart in the rows. The fertil- izers were sown broadcast just before the tobacco plants were set. Whether they were worked into the soil or allowed to lie on the surface is not stated. From the field notes taken July 1 and August 1, it would seem that the nitrate of soda had very little if any beneficial effect on the plants up to the first of August. As only 160 lbs. of nitrate of soda was used per acre, and that scattered over the whole surface, and as the soil probably needed draining, there was little chance for the nitrate to feed the young plants. In the end 52 however, the nitrate seems to have done its accus- tomed work. The following table shows some of the more important results : EXPERIMENTS ON TOBACCO AT THE KENTUCKY EX- PERIMENT STATION IN 1889. Yield of Tobacco per acre — lbs. t 1- O I0 ° lbs. of good commercial nitrate of soda contains. Ten thousand early cabbage per acre, weighing five pounds each is a good crop. These cabbage (25 tons per acre) contain 120 lbs. of nitrogen, equal to 750 lbs. of nitrate of soda. In other words, the gardeners use nearly 7 lbs. of nitrogen in the form of manure to get back 1 lb. of nitrogen in the crop. And as long as they use nitrogen in the form of barnyard or stable manure, it is undoubtedly necessary to use this large quantity. They find it profitable to use it, but thanks to the investigations of scientific 57 men we now know how to obtain the same result with far greater certainty and at vastly less cost. The 75 tons of manure contains 820 lbs. of nitrogen, but little or no nitric acid, and it is nitric acid that the plants want and must have. It is now known that the nitrogen in the organic matter of the soil or manure is slowly converted into nitric acid by the growth of a minute organism, appar- ently a micrococcus. This micrococcus cannot grow if the soil is too cold, or too wet, or too dry, or in the absence of lime or an alkali. As a general rule, there is no lack of lime in the soil, and the other conditions necessary for the conversion of the nitrogen into nitric acid are warm weather and a moist, porous soil. In the early spring the soil is too wet and too cold for the change to take place. We must wait for warm weather. But the gardener does not want to wait. He makes his profits largely on his early crops. Guided only by experience and tradition, he fills his land with manure, and even then he gets only a moderate crop the first year. He puts on 75 tons more manure the next year and gets a better crop; and another 75 tons the next year and gets a still better crop. And he may continue putting on manure till the soil itself, like the garden at Rothamsted, is as rich in nitrogen as the manure itself, and even then he must keep on manure- ing or he fails to get a good early crop. Why ? The nitrogen of the soil or of roots or plants or dung is retained in the soil in a comparatively inert condi- 58 tion. There is little or no loss. But when it is slowly converted into nitric acid during warm weather, the plants take it up and grow rapidly. Unfortunately, however, if we have no plants growing in the autumn and there is much nitric acid left unused in the soil, the rains of winter and early spring leach out a large proportion of it and it sinks into the subsoil or under- drains. How, then, is the market gardener to get the nitric acid absolutely necessary for the growth of his early plants ? He gets it as before stated, from an excessive and continuous use of stable manure, and even then he fails to get it in sufficient quantity. One thousand pounds of nitrate of soda will furnish more nitrogen to the plants early in tlie spring than the gardener can get from 75 or 10c tons of well-rotted stable manure. The stable manure will furnish nitric acid for his later crops, but for his early crops the gar- dener who fails to use nitrate of soda is blind to his own interests. The same remarks apply with equal force to celery plants. We formerly started many of our celery plants in hot-beds and then pricked them out into cold frames and not unfrequently transplanted them again before the final setting out for the crop. This method of raising plants was attended with a great deal of work and expense, and not only that, but it was found that celery plants started in hot-beds did not produce as good a crop as plants grown from seed sown in the 59 open ground. Many of the plants were hollow and some even ran up to seed. It was not always easy, however, in our cold climate to get the out-door plants early enough. The only way we could succeed was to prepare the land the pre- vious autumn, and to work into the soil not less than ioo tons of the richest well-rotted stable manure we could obtain, and sow the seed in the spring, the mo- ment the frost was out of the ground. For several years the writer has grown over a million celery plants a year. By the use of an enormous amount of rich manure obtained from sheep fed on clover hay and malt-sprouts, and afterwards using this sheep manure for bedding pigs, and thus saturating it with urine, we were able to grow good out-door celery plants. Eight years ago we used nitrate of soda cautiously as a top dressing on the celery plants. The effect was astonishing. The next year, having more confidence, we sowed the nitrate at the time we sowed the seed, and again after the plants came up, and twice afterwards during a rain. Instead of finding it difficult to get the plants early enough for the celery growers who set them out, they were ready three weeks before the usual time of transplanting. At the four applications, we probably used 1600 lbs. of nitrate of soda per acre, and this would probably furnish more nitric acid to the plants than the plants could get from 500 tons of manure per acre, provided 6o it had been possible to have worked such a quantity into the soil. Never were finer plants grown. As com- pared with the increased value of the plants the cost of the nitrate is not worth taking into consideration. The next year the same treatment afforded equally good results, though we noticed that on part of the land where celery plants had been grown the previous year and followed afterwards by a crop of late cucum- bers for pickles and the land again sown to celery in the spring, without manure, the plants were not as good as when manure as well as nitrate was used. We now aim to dung the land in the autumn and use nitrate of soda in the spring. In other words, we use nitrate of soda not as a sub- stitute for common manure, but as a highly prized and invaluable addition. Nitrate of Soda and Drought. Celery is a semi-aquatic plant. It delights in an abundant supply of water. But it is found that ni- trate of soda is in part a substitute for water. And the same is true of many other plants. In the dry climate of America, pansies are supposed to require a damp soil or large supplies of water. We find that nitrate of soda, even on dry, sandy soil, will produce a luxuriant growth of plant and a profusion of the largest and most brilliant flowers. On Morning Glories (Convolvulus) the effect of nitrate of soda on the growth of the vines and the color of the leaves and 6i the size and beauty of the flowers is remarkable. The effect on Asters is equally striking. Nitrate of Soda for Strawberries, Rasp- berries and Currants. The strawberry grower knows the value of water. If he will try nitrate of soda he will find it wonderfully efficacious. The effect of nitrate of soda on strawberries in the dry climate of the United States is very beneficial. It not only doubles or trebles the yield, but the straw- berries are larger and handsomer, and consequently command a much higher price in market. No ordinary amount of manure will produce so great an effect, for the reason that the plants grow and form their fruit early in the season. The nitrate of soda furnishes the plants with nitric acid before the nitrogen of the manure can be converted into this es sential ingredient of plant food. A few years ago, we published a statement in regard to the astonishing effect of a large dressing of nitrate of soda on an old strawberry bed. The bed had been neglected and was full of grass and weeds. At that time we had never used nitrate of soda on strawberries and did not know but that it might injure them. The bed we allude to, was so run out and worthless that we did not care whether the nitrate killed the plants or not. We gave the bed two or three heavy dress- ings, sown broadcast, early in the spring and a few 62 weeks later. Instead of killing the plants, the nitrate made them grow so vigorously that with a little assist- ance from a sharp hoe and by pulling out the large weeds, the strawberries killed out nearly all the grass, and we had a remarkably fine crop of fruit. Since then we have used nitrate of soda and superphosphate on all our strawberry plantations, and find this dress- ing far more effective and economical than ordinary manure. In Orchard and Garden for May, 1890, Professor W F. Massey, of the N. C. Experiment Station, writes as follows : " In the spring of 1888, I top dressed an old straw- berry bed, in its fifth year of bearing, with 300 lbs. of nitrate of soda per acre. I had intended to plow it up the previous summer, but other matters prevented and the bed was in an exhausted condition and rather foul with white clover and sorrel. The effect was amazing, for this bed of an acre and a quarter, from which I expected hardly anything, gave me 7000 quarts of berries. Variety Crescent, with fertilizing rows of Wilson, Sharpless and others. The crop was nearly as large as the best the plot had made. This was on moist bottom land, naturally fertile." Nitrate of soda is, at least, equally as good for raspberries as for strawberries. On currants, with clean cultivation, we have for several years raised large crops of fine fruit, with a top dressing of nitrate 63 of soda alone, applied on each side of the rows early in the spring. On poorer land, it would be desirable to apply superphosphate and potash in the autumn, and plow or cultivate them in, and the following spring, and in fact every spring, give a top dressing of nitrate of soda. Nitrate of Soda and Weeds. From what we have said about the effect of nitrate on an old grassy strawberry bed, and the similar expe- rience of Professor Massey, on a bed, " rather foul with white clover and sorrel," it must not be inferred that nitrate will kill weeds and nourish wholesome plants. Nitrate of Soda, properly used, makes " rich land," and we all know that weeds, if they have the chance, will grow luxuriantly in rich soil. It is also well known that a light, thin crop favors the growth of weeds, while a heavy " smothering crop," will hold them in check. Much depends on whether the crop or the weeds get the start. Hence, it is of vast importance to make the land as clean as possible before sowing the crop, and, with hoed crops, to keep down the weeds by the fre- quent use of the cultivator and hoe. If this is done nitrate of soda will make the crop grow so rapidly that it will smother or check the weeds. On the other hand, if it is not done, the weeds will prove better fighters than the crop we want to raise, and they will secure the lion's share of the nitrate, and with the nitrate they will also appropriate other plant food and 6 4 moisture, and thus the nitrate instead of helping the crop, may actually injure it. There will be a large total growth of vegetation, but it is vegetation of the wrong kind. On grass land, a liberal dressing of nitrate of soda, with other necessary plant-food, will frequently so increase the growth of grass that weeds will entirely disappear. Even dock, thistle, and mallows, we have seen killed on our own farm in this way, and white clover and dandelions can be speedily banished from a lawn by repeated dressings of nitrate of soda. Nitrate of Soda for Tomatoes. Professor Voorhees, of the New Jersey Experiment Station, made experiments with different fertilizers on Tomatoes, in 1889. The trials were made on the farm of Mr. C. M. Housell, an intelligent practical gardener, who attended to all the details. The results were as follows : Manures and Fertilizers Cost of Manures and Value of Crop used per acre. Fertilizers per acre. per acre. No manure of any kind $271.88 20 tons fine barnyard manure $30.00 291.75 8 tons fine barnyard manure and 400 lbs. complete fertilizer 15.00 317.63 160 lbs. nitrate of soda alone 4.00 361.13 The above manures and fertilizers were all applied May 7th. On an adjoining plot, 160 lbs. of nitrate of soda was sown May 7th ; and again on June 12th, when the tomatoes were beginning to set, another dressing of 160 lbs. was sown on the surface around 65 the plants. This plot produced a crop which sold for $369 per acre. The first dressing yielded a profit of $85.25 per acre; the second dressing a profit of only $3.87 per acre. It is evident that 160 lbs. of nitrate of soda per acre was all that the plants needed, or could make use of without a greater supply of phosphoric acid and potash than the soil afforded. In addition to the above experiments, Professor Voorhees made others that are worthy of considera- tion. The results may be tabulated as below : Fertilizers per acre and Cost of Value of crop when applied. Fertilizers. per acre. A — No maaure $271.88 13 — 160 lbs. muriate of potash and 320 lbs. superphosphate $ 7.20 284 25 C — Same as B, with 160 lbs. nitrate of soda, May 7th 11.20 35 6 -°3 D — Same as C, with 160 lbs. additional nitrate of soda, sown June 12th. . . 15.20 4 2 9-38 E — Same as B, with 320 lbs. nitrate of soda, sown May 7th 15.20 395.25 It will be seen that the addition of phosphates and potash to the 160 lbs. of nitrate of soda had no effect. The reason for this is that the soil could furnish enough phosphoric acid and potash for all that the crop pro- duced by the 160 lbs. of nitrate required. But when an additional 160 lbs. of nitrate of soda was used, then the phosphoric acid and potash came into play, and the crop brought $429.38 per acre. It will be seen furthermore, that the 320 lbs. of nitrate applied May 7th, on plot E, did not have as 66 great an effect as the same amount of nitrate of soda applied at two dressings, on plot D- It may surprise many gardeners that 20 tons of fine barnyard manure did not produce as large a crop of tomatoes as 160 lbs. of nitrate of soda. The 20 tons of manure contained not' less than 160 lbs. of nitrogen, while the nitrate of soda contained only 25 lbs. And that the great effect produced by the nitrate of soda was due to the nitrogen, there is abundant evidence. Why then, did not the 160 lbs. of nitrogen in the manure do as much good as the 25 lbs. in the nitrate? Simply because the nitrogen in the manure has to be converted into nitrate before the plants can use it. Nitrate of Soda vs. Insects and Diseases, There are many facts showing that an application 1 f nitrate of soda, in connection with other plant food, where necessary, will produce such a healthy, vigorous growth early in the season, with such an abundance of rich sap, that the plants can sustain with comparative impunity the attacks of insects and fungi. If ordi- nary manure is used in sufficient quantity to produce the same effect, we get too much nitrogen late in the season with immature growth of wood. But by the direct use of the nitrate we can control this matter and get a luxuriant growth just when we want it. Our limited space forbids further allusion to this important matter, but it is well worthy the attention of farmers 6; gardeners and fruit growers. In fact, it is already re- ceiving attention. In a little pamphlet just published in London, en- titled ,v Facts about Nitrate," it is stated that "Nitrate will bring on turnips and swedes so rapidly as to ena- ble them to outstrip the ravages of their worst enemy the fly," or what we sometimes call " jumping jack." This is certainly true, especially if superphosphate is also used with the nitrate of soda, and it is equally true of cabbage and cauliflower plants. To What Crops Should Nitrate of Soda be Applied ? Before we answer this question, it should be stated that we do not regard nitrate of soda as a substitute for other manures. Taking agriculture and horticult- ure as we find them we recommend nitrate of soda as the cheapest and best form in which to apply nitrogen to plants. To those who are using ordinary farm manure, we say continue to use it and try to make it richer by feeding better foods ; but use nitrate of soda in addition. If you are using superphosphate, con- tinue to use it, but use nitrate of soda also. And so of any other fertilizer. If your object is to grow maxi- mum crops, you must in some way furnish the plants with nitrates. If you use guano, blood, bones, fish, wool, stable manure, night soil, or manure of any kind, the nitrogen must be converted into nitrate be- fore the plants can use it. With few exceptions all 68 the fertilizers now generally used, in proportion to the wants of the plants, contain a larger proportion of phosphoric acid, potash, etc., than they do of availa- ble nitrogen. If we desire to raise maximum crops,, therefore, we must furnish available nitrogen, and the cheapest and best form in which we can get available nitrogen is nitrate of soda. Looking at the farmer as a manufacturer, the raw material he uses consists principally of lime, soda, magnesia, potash, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid and nitric acid. As a rule he rarely needs to buy anything except potash, phosphoric acid and nitric acid. When he buys potash and phosphoric acid, if the plants to which he applies it do not use it, it remains in the soil. It is not lost. With nitric acid the case is dif- ferent. If not used, much of it will sink into the sub- soil, and if recovered at all, it will be by clover and other deep-rooted plants. When we use nitrate of soda for manufacturing crops it should be for crops that will pay for its use. The price of crops vary greatly ; the price of nitrate of soda is comparatively uniform. We have known potatoes to sell for ten cents a bushel, and very frequently for $1.00 per bushel. But fluctuations in the price of manufactured products are not confined to agriculture. It has been said that " high farming " (say the use of nitrate of soda) is a remedy for low prices. Theoretically this is not true ; practically it is often the case. It is seldom that all 6o the products of the farm and garden are low in price the same year, and it would be well for the farmer who uses nitrate of soda largely to manufacture a variety of products and not confine himself to one standard crop, especially if it is a crop which can be raised all over the world and carried long distances to market. As a rule, the crops which require the most labor per acre, are the crops which pay the highest profits for the use of nitrate of soda. Wheat, barley, oats, rye, buckwheat and maize re- quire a comparatively small expenditure per acre for labor and seed. Potatoes, mangolds, sugar beets and Swede turnips require much more labor per acre. Carrots, parsnips, cabbage and onions require still more labor per acre. If we grow only half a crop, the money expended for rent, taxes, seed and labor is nearly or quite as much as if we grow a full crop. If the land is drained and the crop put in at the proper season and kept clean, the difference, other things being equal, between half a crop and a full crop, provided there is no lack of other plant food, is due to the difference in the supply of nitrates in the soil. If the rent, labor and seed for a crop of wheat cost $15 per acre and we get 15 bushels of wheat at $1.25 per bushel, the profit is $3.75 per acre. With 30 bushels at $1.25, the profit is $22.50. 70 If the rent, labor and seed for an acre of potatoes cost $45 per acre, and we get 150 bushels of potatoes at 50 cents per bushel, on the farm, the profit is $30 per acre. If we get 300 bushels at 50 cents, the profit is $105 per acre. If the rent, labor and seed for a crop of onions cost $150 per acre and we get 300 bushels at 75 cents, the profit is $75 per acre. If v/e get 600 bushels at 75 cents, the profit is $300 per acre. If the rent, labor, etc., for a crop of asparagus is $200 per acre and the crop is three tons of green shoots at $ico per ton, on the farm, the profit is $100 per acre. If we get 6 tons at $100 per ton, the profit, less the extra cost of labor and manure, is $400 per acre. In such crops as asparagus, however, doubling the yield from the use of nitrate of soda does not tell l.alf the story. Asparagus is sold by the bunch, weighing about 2^ pounds. The price ranges according to earliness and quality, from 10 cents to 25 cents per bunch at whole- sale, or from $80 to $200 per ton. It is far easier to sell the good crop than the poor or average crop. The demand for the large, tender shoots is so great that the market gardener often uses his fine bunches of asparagus to sell the rest of his load. He refuses to part with his asparr.gus unless the dealer will take his entire load of vegetables. 7i But leaving out all these considerations and assum- ing that the non-nitrated asparagus yields 3 tons per acre and sells for $100 per ton, and that the nitrated asparagus yields 6 tons per acre and sells for $200 per ton. The profits of the two crops, less the extra cost for labor and manure, are as follows : Without nitrate of soda, $100 per acre. With nitrate of soda, $1000 per acre. Nitrate of soda can be used with great profit on early beets. The price varies from 50 cents to $3.00 per 100 roots. Eighty thousand roots are grown per acre. The beet is a hardy plant and will grow at a low temperature provided it has plenty of food. It must have nitrate. Gardeners try to furnish this by using an enormous amount of manure. A direct ap- plication of 500 pounds of nitrate of soda per acre at the time of sowing the seed or a week later, has a wonderful effect. I speak from experience. The beets are larger and earlier and command the highest price in market. Look at the result : Beets without nitrate, 50,000 at 50 cents per 100, $250 per acre. Beets with nitrate of soda, 50,000 at an average price of $2.00 per 100, $1000 per acre. The beets with the nitrate are ready for market earlier and being grown more rapidly are larger, more attractive, and of better quality. 72 Early cucumbers and melons are greatly benefited by a dressing of nitrate of soda. The plants are started on inverted sods in a hot-bed, and afterwards transplanted into the open ground. The expense is large and it is necessary to get a large and early crop. We have used nitrate of soda and superphosphate with very decided advantage, but cannot give the actual profit. It is safe to say that the increased crop and increased price will pay for the nitrate five times over. The same is true of lettuce. We want it early and of the best quality. It is on the land only a short time and is usually planted between the rows of other crops. It is necessary to make the land exceedingly rich, and nitrate of soda, in connection with phosphates, is by far the cheapest and most efficient and profitable top dressing that can be used. The early crop is dis- posed of before the middle of June. The earlier the more profitable. And the reason nitrate of soda is so valuable is because the stable manure which is used so lavishly does not furnish the nitrate early enough for the use of these early crops. Nitrate of Soda vs. Ammonia-Salts. Next to the nitrates, the most available form in which nitrogen can be furnished to plants is ammonia. Nitrate of Soda contains 16 2-5 per cent, of nitrogen. Nitrate of Potash " 13 3-4 " " Carbonate of Ammonia "17 3-4 " " Sulphate of Ammonia "21 1-5 " " Muriate of Ammonia " 25 1-2 " " 73 When we know the per cent, of impurities in any of the above articles, and the price, we can tell which is the cheapest source of nitrogen. At present nitrate of soda, in proportion to the nitro- gen which it contains, is by far the cheapest. As long as nitrate of soda can be obtained at a price which will furnish nitrogen as cheap as it can be ob- tained in the form of ammonia it is better to buy the nitrate. If we sow ammonia on land it must be converted into nitric acid before the plants can use it. If lime is deficient in the soil the conversion of am- monia into nitric acid would be retarded and in such a case the ammonia, if applied to such crops as onions, beets and potatoes, would at first be injurious rather than beneficial. Professor Wagner found this to be the case in some experiments with late planted potatoes. Lawes & Gilbert found the same thing in 1876, when their ex- perimental potatoes were not planted till June 10-13. The crop without manure was 1 544 bushels per acre ; with 400 lbs. ammonia salts 1 16 bushels per acre. There would seem to be no conceivable reason why the farmer or gardener should buy sulphate of am- monia rather than nitrate of soda. The nitrogen in the ammonia costs more. It cannot do any more good unless by chance, and sometimes it does harm. In experiments on Swede Turnips extending over five years, on the farm of the Royal Agricultural Col- 74 lege at Cirencester, Dr. Voelcker found (I quote his own words from his report in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, volume 2, part i, number 67, page 70,) "Ammoniacal salt, such as sulphate of am- monia, used alone, had a decidedly injurious effect upon the turnip crop, even when used in a small quan- tity. Ammoniacal manures applied to Swedes at first checked the growth of the plant and had ultimately no beneficial effect on the crop, either alone or in con- junction with phosphates." If sulphate of ammonia, as is sometimes the case, contains sulpho-cyanates it is always injurious to plants, but Dr. Voelcker states that the sulphate he used was a good article. We have said " by chance " ammonia may do more good than the nitrate. It will be more correct to say that by chance nitrate may have a less beneficial effect than the ammonia. For instance, if we sow nitrate and ammonia on adjoining plots on the same day and before the ammonia is converted into nitrate we should have a great rain, some of the nitrate of soda may be carried below the reach of the roots. And the ammonia, being converted into nitrate after the rain was over, would suffer no loss. This is a mere chance. If we do not wish to run this risk and are willing to forego the advantage of furnishing the plants with a supply of nitrate early in the spring, we can delay sowing it. 75 In other words, if we sow ammonia April ist, and it is converted into nitrate by the ist of May we shall be just as well off if we sow the nitrate May ist. But we desire to give the plants some nitrate just as soon as growth commences in the spring, and if we think there is any danger of losing nitrate, instead of sowing the whole at once, we can sow it at different times. In the fearfully wet season of 1879, ' n England, the ammonia-salts on the potatoes at Rothamsted pro- duced a better crop than the nitrate. The yield per acre with minerals and ammonia was in bushels per acre. And with minerals and nitrate 98 bushels per acre. In this exceptionally wet year the rain probably carried some of the nitrate below the range of roots I saw the crop in August. The field was kept scrupu- lously clean, but the weather was cold and the land was saturated with rain. On my own farm, in America, potatoes, planted no earlier than these, were ready to dig. The potatoes at Rothamsted that year were not dug until October 13-16. In such a year as this it is highly probable that if the nitrate, instead of being sown all at once in April, had been sown at different times as the plants needed it, the crop with the nitrate would have been far larger than with ammonia. Taking the average of the first five years of the potato experiments at Rothamsted, the same amount of nitrogen in the form of nitrate of soda produced a 7 6 larger crop than when ammonia was used, all other conditions being the same. The following are the figures : No manure, 93 bushels per acre. Ammonia-salts and minerals, 274^ bushels per acre. Nitrate of soda and minerals, 294 In every one of the five years, with the exception of the cold, late, wet season of 1879, the nitrate pro- duced a larger crop than the ammonia, and on the average the same amount of nitrogen as nitrate pro- duced an average of 20 bushels per acre more potatoes than the ammonia-salts. Lawes & Gilbert commenced to use nitrate of soda on barley in 1868. The effect the first year, which happened to be dry and hot was remarkable. With the same amount of nitrogen in both cases and the same minerals the result was as follows : Ammonia-salts, 37^ bushels per acre. Nitrate of soda, 44 " " In 1883, on the fortieth wheat crop in succession on the same land at Rothamsted, the following results were obtained with ammonia salts and nitrate of soda : 1. Ammonia-salts and minerals, 36^5 bushels per acre. 2. Nitrate of soda and minerals, 43^ " " The same kind and amount of minerals were used on both plots and the same amount of nitrogen. The only difference is that the nitrogen on one plot is in the form of ammonia, and on the other in the form of 77 nitrate of soda. The nitrate of soda produces 7% bushels more wheat per acre than the ammonia. Nitrate of Sodavs, Farm-Yard Manure. The nitrogen in manure must be converted into nitrate before it is available as plant-food. The rapid- ity or slowness with which the change takes place ■depends very much on the character of the manure, the method of application and the nature of the soil. On clay land, common manure plowed under, may remain for years with little change. On light, sandy soil the change would be much more rapid. As a top dressing, the inert nitrogen of the manure is more rapidly converted into nitrates, but there is more or less loss from the escape of free nitrogen. The richer the food in nitrogen, the more nitrogen is there found in the urine. And the nitrogen in the urine is much more rapidly converted into nitrates than the nitrogen in the solids. It is very desirable, therefore, to feed highly nitrogenous food, and make as rich manure as possible. In such a case we not ■only get a manure containing more nitrogen and other ingredients of plant food, but the nitrogen is in a more available condition, or rather it is not quite so inert or dormant. It is much to be desired that some method of in- creasing the activity of dung may be discovered. At present all the facts concur in showing that farmers and gardeners do not get but a very small proportion 73 of the benefit from dung that the nitrogen it contains is capable of producing. During twenty-seven years at Rothamsted, 1852- 187S, the total produce of wheat was as follow;. 1 . No Manure 364K bushels per acre.. 2. 14 tons of Farm-Yard Manure each year. . 9-i, T s " 3. 400 lbs. 'Vmmonia-Salts and Minerals J?7; ! + " 4. 550 lbs. Nitrate ofSoda and Minerals. .. .1032^ '' The nitrate of soda and ammonia-salts furnished the same amount of nitrogen — S2 lbs. each year per acre. The farm-yard manure furnished 200.7 lbs. of nitro- gen each year per acre. During the 27 years plot 2 had received 5419 lbs. of nitrogen, and plot 4 only 2214 lbs. of nitrogen, and yet plot 4 produced 1032! bushels of wheat, and plot 2 only 92 1 -J- bushels. The farm-yard manure con- tained 3205 lbs. more nitrogen than the nitrate of soda and produced 1 1 1 bushels less wheat. With barley the results are still more strikingly in favor of the nitrate of soda. During 32 years, 1852-83, one plot has received each year 14 tons of farm-yard manure, and another plot 275 lbs. nitrate of soda, or an equal amount of nitrogen in ammonia-salts, and 3.V cwts. superphos- phate. The following is the aggregate yield : Plot 1— No manure , 572 bushels per acre. Plot 2 — 448 tons farm yard manure 1588 Plot 3 — Less than 4 l i tons nitrate of soda with superphosphate alone „ ... 1504 " " 79 The farm yard manure contained 6422 lbs. of nitro- gen, and the nitrate of soda 13 12 lbs. In other words, 1 3 12 lbs. of nitrogen in the form of nitrate of soda produced 1504 bushels of barley, and 6422 lbs. of nitrogen in farm yard manure produced only 15S8 bushels. The farm yard manure contained 5 no lbs. more nitrogen than the nitrate of soda and produced only 84 more bushels of barley. In 1883 the crops on the wheat field at Rothamsted ■after 40 years continuous manuring teach an important lesson. The yield was as follows 1 — No manure, 13^3 bushels per acre. 2 — Farm yard manure, 35^ bushels per acre. 3 — Mineral manures, 15^ bushels per acre. 4 — Mineral manures and nitrate of soda, 43-Ms bush- els per acre. During the 40 years, plot 2 has received 560 tons of farm yard manure, containing 8028 lbs. of nitrogen, and yet on plot 4 a dressing of minerals and 550 lbs. of nitrate of soda, containing only 82 lbs. of nitrogen, produced 8 bushels more wheat per acre than this plot which has received such an immense quantity of farm yard manure. An Important Truth for Market Gar- deners. The practical farmer will say that he is not in the habit of using 14 tons of manure each year on his land. This is true, but the market gardener, at any 8o rate, can learn an important practical lesson from these carefully ascertained facts. Market gardeners are in the habit of using not merely 14 tons of dung every year, but very frequently 50 tons or 75 tons and sometimes 100 tons every year, and they will tell us that they might as well stop gardening as to stop manuring. Sir John B. Lawes well says : " When we consider that the application of a few pounds of nitrogen in ni- trate of soda to a soil which contains several thousand pounds of nitrogen in its organic form, is capable of increasing the crop from 14 to 40, or even 50 bushels of wheat per acre, I think it must be apparent to all that we have very convincing evidence of nitric acid being the main source of the nitrogen in plants." And yet the market gardener continues to use, year after year, enormous quantities of manure containing no ready formed nitric acid. If the manure was given him for nothing, the labor of drawing, handling and applying it costs more than the amount of nitric acid which it annually yields by decomposition in the soil could be purchased for in the form of nitrate of soda. In these market gardens the soil is so charged with carbonic acid that it excludes the oxygen, and decom- position proceeds so slowly that to produce the nec- essary quantity of nitric acid more and more manure must be continually used. Try nitrate of soda. It acts like magic. It will pay ten times over. Forcing Vegetables and Fruits and Flowers. Much time and money are spent in forcing plants, and practical men have attained remarkable results ; though few gardeners can give any satisfactory reason for their operations. We do not allude to forcing plants in a hot-house. This is simply a method of providing spring and summer weather in winter. But there is such a thing as "forcing" plants out of doors. We are told by an old horticultural writer that this " is effected by ma- nures of all sorts, but especially what are called hot and stimulating manures and compost, as pigeons dung for cucumbers, blood for vines, and in general as to soils, lime-rubbish, sand, and gravel seem to have the power of accelerating vegetation to a much greater degree than rich clayey or loamy soils or bog or peat earth." We now know what this means. The pigeon dung and the blood are converted into nitric acid. The lime- rubbish is better than the clay and muck because it favors nitrification, and old lime-rubbish mav even contain nitrate of lime. Nature furnishes nitrates for the use of plants in warm weather, but if we want to " force " plants, in other words make them grow ahead of the natural season, we must furnish the nitrates ourselves. If the soil is rich, nature furnishes all the plant food that is 82 necessary except nitric acid. But nitric acid is pro- duced only in warm weather. I have heard even in- telligent farmers and gardeners say, "You cannot make us believe that it is necessary to send to South America for guano or nitrate of soda. It is not natural. We can get the nitrogen on our own farms m fnanure." They forget that nearly all the operations of im- proved farming and gardening are not " natural." When grown for food, turnips, beets, carrots, pars- nips, onions, salsify, cabbage, cauliflower and celery are not " natural " productions. Naturally they run up to seed the first year. We grow them for bulbs, roots, or edible buds or leaves; and to attain this object it is necessary to furnish an unnatural supply of food in the soil, and practically this means more nitrate early in the season than nature provides. Gardeners and florists and fruit growers are con- stantly interfering with what is popularly called nature. To get double flowers, the florist starves a plant till it has only just strength enough to produce one small seed. From that seed he raises a plant which retains in part the dwarf habit of its parent and which, when furnished with an unnatural supply of food, bursts forth into double flowers. The same is true of early cauliflowers. The fruit grower dwarfs the pear by budding it on the paradise quince bush. This checks its growth and throws it into premature bearing. And then by providing an unnaturally plentiful supply of food he gets a great crop of large, delicious fruit. If 83 nature produces more fruit than the tree can mature- he must thin out or provide more food. In all these operations there is a necessity for more science and more nitrates. Nitrate of Soda not a Substitute for Other Ingredients of Plant-Food, It would seem hardly necessary to call attention to this fact. If a farmer top-dresses his winter wheat in the spring with ioo lbs. of nitrate of soda, and gets an extra yield of eight or ten bushels of wheat per acre, he might think that wheat requires nothing but nitrate of soda. This is a mistake. It must have phosphates, potash and other ingredients of plant food. Without these it cannot grow — nitrate or no nitrate. The fact that a large yield is obtained by the use of nitrate alone simply shows, what is often the case, that the soil contains in an available condition, all the mineral elements of plant food that a large crop requires. But, as a rule, if you are going to top-dress wheat in the spring, it is well to sow superphosphate at the time of seeding, the autumn previous. And when nitrate is sown with barley or oats in the spring, in nine cases out of ten, it is desirable to use phosphates also. Nitrate is not a substitute for phosphates any more than phosphates are a substitute for nitrates. As a rule, to grow maximum crops, we need to use both.. The common error now is, that we use phosphates and do not use nitrates, and thus fail to get large and profitable crops. 8 4 How to Use Nitrate of Soda. Nitrate of soda is shipped from Chili in coarse sacks holding about 300 lbs. By the time it gets to New- York, and especially by the handling after it gets there, these bags are more or less torn. We prefer to get nitrate in the original bags, but before they are sent into the country they should be rebagged by putting the original bag of nitrate into a new bag. This the importers will do. But in ordering nitrate it is necessary to state distinctly, each time you order, that you wish it sent " in double bags." Nitrate of soda looks like common salt, so much so that horses, cows and sheep, if they can get to it will eat it to an injurious or even fatal extent. On our own farm an old nitrate bag was carelessly left where a Jersey cow got to it, and in two or three hours we found her dead, and another cow so sick that we had hard work to save her. The bags, especially in damp weather, have several pounds of nitrate adhering to them. Our own plan is to soak them in water. They make unsurpassed liquid manure — say one bag to a barrel of water. Before using, the nitrate should be run through a sieve, to remove the lumps. Break up these lumps — which is easily done by pounding them on the barn floor with the back of a spade — and throw them on the sieve, repeating the process till all will go through the sieve. 85 If the nitrate is to be sown alone it is now ready. If to be mixed with superphosphate or other fertiliz- ers, put the desired quantity of each in a heap on the floor, and turn it over two or three times, till it is uniformly mixed. It is not well to mix more nitrate and superphosphate than you wish to use, because after it has been mixed a few days, especially if damp, it not only gets lumpy, but there is a chance of more or less loss of nitrogen. But if sown within a few days after mixing there is no difficulty in sowing and no loss. Nitrate of soda, unlike sulphate of ammonia, guano and superphosphate, can be mixed with lime or ashes without loss of nitrogen. Potash salts can also be mixed with the nitrate of soda. In fact, with the ex- ception of acid phosphate, nitrate can be mixed with any other fertilizer you wish to sow with it. Should Nitrate of Soda be Sown at Once or at Different Times while the Crop is Growing? Many scientific authorities recommend sowing nitrate of soda in " fractional " dressings. Some go so far as to lay down a rule that it should never be sown on bare ground, but that we should wait till the plants are growing. They tell us that nitrate on bare ground will leach out of the soil, but that if the plants are growing, the roots will absorb it and prevent loss. 86 If water leaches through the soil into underdrains or porous subsoil, it will undoubtedly carry more or less nitrate with it. If no water escapes no nitrate will be lost. On my own farm we have several miles of under- drains, and, except where they tap springs, it is a rare occurence for any water to pass through the soil into the drains after the land is in condition to work in the spring ; and it is certain that if no water escapes, no nitrates will be lost. Lawes & Gilbert found that an acre of their cele- brated wheat field contained on the permanently unmanuredplot 1,396 tons of water ; on the plot dressed with artificial manure 1,519 tons; and on the plot dressed with 14 tons of farm yard manure each year 1,610 tons of water. There are underdrains running up each plot 8}£ yards apart. When the soil contains more than the above quantity of water, the underdrains run ; when the quantity gets down to this amount, the underdrains stop running. During the winter and early spring our soils are usually saturated with water, and an additional shower starts the drains. But the rain that falls on the surface does not itself descend to the drains. It merely presses out the water below. And so when we sow on the surface of the land in the spring 500 lbs. of nitrate of soda per acre, we might have a heavy rain without run- ning much risk of loss of nitrate. If there are 1,500 tons of water held in the soil, there would be only 3 lbs. of nitrate of soda in each ton of water. 37 We think a consideration of these facts will convince anyone that after a soil is in condition to work, and when it is consequently less than saturated with water, we may sow nitrate on such land with little risk of loss. In Sir John B. Lawes' letter (page 42), he tells us that, as the result of his long experience, he does not approve of partial applications of nitrate of soda. In his barley experiments the whole of the nitrate is sown in the spring before the seed. " In the United States," he says, " I should be disposed to sow nitrate very early in the spring." He wants the nitrate to be washed into the soil. 'Where the food is," he truly remarks, "there are the roots." Of course there are crops which flourish best with the roots near the surface, and in such casts it may be better to apply the nitrate of soda at different times while the crops are growing. This is a matter for future experiments in this country. One thing is quite certain, and that is, that there is far less danger of loss from sowing nitrate of soda early in the spring than the teachings of many recognized authorities would lead us to suppose. Sowing Nitrate on Winter Wheat, or Rye, or Winter Barley or Winter Oats. We sow our winter wheat, in this section, the first and second weeks in September. The weather is often dry and hot, and it is necessary to drill in the seed 88 deep enough to reach the moist soil, or it germinates slowly and unevenly. Some of our farmers think that when the soil is dry and we have no rain for some weeks after sowing, phosphates make the soil still drier and retards germination. When the soil is mellow and moist and you have a drill with a fertilizer attachment, unquestionably the easiest and best method of applying phosphates and nitrate of soda is to drill them in with the seed. Our farmers usually buy a " nitrogenous superphos- phate," or an "ammoniacal phosphate," or some other brand containing usually not more than two per cent, of nitrogen. They drill in on the average about 150 lbs. per acre, so that the fertilizer they use, furnishes about three pounds of nitrogen per acre. If this is in the form of dried blood or sulphate of ammonia, and the soil is moist and warm, the nitrogen or ammonia is speedily converted into nitrates, and the young wheat shows the effect by its dark green color and luxuriant growth. If the ground is very dry, this change cannot take place, and the plants get no bene- fit till rains come — often so late that there is not much time for the wheat to grow before winter sets in. And if the wheat does not take up the nitrogen much of it will be lost by leaching during the winter months. Instead of using a nitrogenous or ammoniacal phos- phate it would be cheaper and better to buy a plain superphosphate and mix nitrate of soda with it. The manufacturers would gladly furnish the superphos- 8 9 phate and nitrate ready mixed, but this, for the reasons previously mentioned, they cannot do. Farmers must do their own mixing, ioo pounds of dissolved South Carolina Rock Phosphate, and 30 pounds of nitrate of soda, will furnish as much available phosphoric acid and nitrogen as 175 lbs. of many of the fertilizers now used. We believe, however, it would be better to sow 250 lbs. of the plain superphosphate and 50 lbs. of nitrate of soda per acre, at the time of sowing the wheat in the autumn, and then, early in the spring, top-dress the wheat with 100 lbs. of nitrate of soda per acre. If the soil is very dry at the time of sowing the wheat in the autumn, instead of drilling in the fertili- zers it would be a good plan to sow the phosphate and nitrate broadcast, and gang-plow them in three or four inches deep. Or they may be worked in with an Acme harrow or pulverizer, or any implement that will bury them deep enough to reach the moist soil. In sections where winter barley or winter oats are grown, the fertilizers may be applied in the same manner as for wheat or rye. For Spring Wheat, Oats, or Barley. Our own plan is to drill in with the seed a mixture of 150 lbs. superphosphate and 150 lbs. nitrate of soda per acre. 200 pounds of each, or 250 pounds of each, per acre, can often be used with profit. It depends on the condition of the land and the price we are likely to get for the grain. 9° If you have no drill with a fertilizer attachment, sow the fertilizers broadcast and work them well into the soil (especially the superphosphate) with an Acme har- row or similar implement that will put the superphos- phate down two or three inches deep in the soil. For Corn or Corn Fodder. Many of our best farmers have given up the old method of planting corn in hills. They drill it in, in rows from three to three and a half feet apart, dropping a seed four or five inches apart in the row. The corn is sown with an ordinary grain drill, that has a fertilizer attachment, and the fertilizer is drilled in with the seed. Corn for fodder is sown in the same way, except that the rows are seldom more than two and one-half to three feet apart, and the seed is dropped two or three inches apart in the rows. Formerly we sowed thicker than this, but the tendency now is to give the plants more space. The fertilizers are drilled in with the seed. We need more experiments to determine the proportion of nitrate of soda and superphosphate and potash to be used for corn or corn fodder. Probably 250 lbs. of superphosphate, 150 lbs. muriate or sulphate of potash, and 150 lbs. nitrate of soda, would be a good proportion for poor, sandy land. On strong land, especially where considerable strawy manure is used, less potash will be required. 9i Where corn is planted in hills. Mark out the land both ways ; and where the marks cross and where the corn is to be planted, scatter the fertilizer over a space of not less than a foot square and work it into the soil with the hoe and then plant the corn, being careful not to let it come in direct contact with the fertilizer. Some experiments indicate that nitrate can be sown to advantage around the hills of corn, after the corn is up, during showery weather. For Potatoes. Apply the fertilizers in about the same propor- tions as recommended for corn. Nitrate of soda can be often used with, great profit on potatoes, but as a rule it is not safe to omit the superphosphate or potash, especially on light, sandy soil. If the nitrate has been left out of the mixture used at the time of planting, sow 200 pounds per acre, broadcast, and cultivate it in. The effect will be seen, if the land is clean and the soil not too dry, in a few days. We cannot too often remind our readers that it will not pay to use nitrate of soda to grow weeds. Put on the nitrate, but keep the cultivator or hoe at work. If this is done, the nitrate, with the other necessary plant-food, will cause such a vigorous growth of potatoes that they will smother the late weeds, and you will have not only a large crop of potatoes, but the land will be left in fine, clean condition for subsequent crops. 9 2 For Beets and Mangold Wurzel. If the seed is drilled in on the flat with a grain drill and fertilizer attachment, sow in rows about twenty- eight inches apart and drill in the nitrate and phosphate with the seed. If sown on ridges, before the ridges are made sow the nitrate and phosphate broadcast on the land. When the ridges are made the fertilizer will be princi- pally under the ridge where the seed is sown. For Beets grown for Sugar, probably 250 lbs. of nitrate and 250 lbs. of superphosphate, and on a light sandy soil, 200 lbs. sulphate of potash per acre are good proportions. For a large crop of mangolds or beets for stock, 200 lbs. more nitrate of soda can be sown broadcast, per acre, with advantage. On Pastures, Meadows, Apple or Peach Orchards. Sow broadcast, early in the spring, 250 lbs. nitrate of soda with or without phosphates or potash, accord- ing to the previous manuring or the condition of the land, always making sure that there is no deficiency in the available supply of phosphates, potash, &c. If you have any doubt on this point, give the crops the benefit of the doubt. For Onions and Garden Crops in General. We can, from several years experience, recommend sowing broadcast over the whole garden, lawn, flower 93 beds, shrubbery and fruit and ornamental trees, 500 lbs. per acre of nitrate of soda, 400 lbs. superphosphate and 200 lbs. sulphate of potash, with or without the usual dressing of manure. How to get on, when Sowing Broadcast, the desired quantity per acre. This is not always an easy matter. The following facts and suggestions may be of use : A bushel of wheat weighs about 60 lbs. A bushel of nitrate of soda weighs about 7° lbs. An average handful of wheat weighs about 3 ozs. An average handful of nitrate of soda, or a mixture of nitrate, superphosphate and potash salts, weighs about 4 ozs. There are, therefore, 320 handfuls of wheat in a bushel, and 280 handfuls of nitrate of soda. In sowing broadcast, every time the right foot steps forward or strikes the ground, you sow a handful of nitrate of soda, or 4 ozs. If the breadth of land covered is 4 yards, and you step one yard, each handful of nitrate is scattered over 8 square yards of land. This is at the rate of about 150 lbs. per acre. If you step 2 feet, you sow 225 lbs. per acre. If you step 18 inches, you sow 300 lbs. per acre. If you step 12 inches, you sow 450 lbs. per acre. If the breadth of land covered is three yards, the quantity sown will be as follows : 94 Stepping 3 feet you will sow about 202 lbs. per acre. 303 li- " " 404 1 foot " " 606 If the breadth of land covered is 2 yards, the quan- tity sown will be as follows : Stepping 3 feet you will sow about 300 lbs. per acre " 2 " " 45° ji " " 600 1 foot " " 9°° The width covered is easily regulated by the angle at which you let the nitrate of soda leave the hand. Using Nitrate of Soda in Solution. When using nitrate of soda in the garden, it is some- times desirable to apply it in solution. The quantity of nitrate which can safely be used in a. gallon of water depends very much on the amount of water in the soil. If the soil is saturated with water, it does not matter how strong the solution is, provided you use only the proper quantity of nitrate per acre. The drier the soil the weaker should be the solution. A teaspoonful of nitrate, or one-half ounce to two gallons of water, we have never found injurious either in the garden or greenhouse. For roses, tomato plants, etc., such a solution can be used every three or four days. The dark color of the leaves will indicate when the plants have had enough. Of course the plants need other food besides nitrate. This is derived from the soil or compost in the pots, 95 but we find great benefit from mixing a small quantity of superphosphate, say a tablespoonful to a bushel, with the soil before potting the plants or sowing the seed in boxes. Care must be taken to mix it thoroughly with the compost. Should too much nitrate or superphosphate be used, the remedy is to saturate and more than saturate the soil with fresh water, and thus carry off in the drainage the excess of nitrate. A strong solution of nitrate or superphosphate, if sprinkled on the leaves of plants, will seriously injure them. The advantages of using these fertilizers are so great, however, that it will well repay any gardener to experiment with them, and thus- learn how to use them with entire safety. Necessity for Care in Applying- Fer- tilizers. A safe rule is to apply the nitrate yourself, or at any rate give the matter your personal attention. The average gardener will need to destroy a few plants before he will exercise the necessary caution. A few years ago my foreman took three men to drop nitrate of soda and superphosphate in the hiils for melons. The method adopted was, to first drop about two ounces of the mixture in each hill, and then work it thoroughly into the soil with a hoe, and put the seed on top and cover it up. The row planted by my foreman came up well ; the next row not quite so well ; and the next still worse ; and on the next, scarcely one hill in five came up. 9 6 Why ? The foreman did his work properly. The nitrate and superphosphate were thoroughly mixed with the soil before planting the seed. The man next to him also mixed the soil nd manure to some ex- tent, but the further the men were from the eye of the foreman the more careless they were. It was a severe lesson. I once suffered several thousand dollars loss from similar carelessness in applying superphosphate and nitrate in the rows where we were setting out onions for seed. Where the nitrate and superphosphate were well mixed with the soil, they were very beneficial ; but where this important point was neglected, and the onions came in direct contact with the manure they were destroyed. Unless you can attend to the operation yourself, it is better in all cases to sow the nitrate broadcast. In Conclusion. We have not said half what we would like to say in regard to the use of nitrate of soda for manure in the United States, but we hope enough has been said to show that the subject is well worthy the attention of those interested in the cultivation of the soil. We know that farmers do not want mere talk. They want facts, and we have endeavored to furnish them. This little book is principally a record of the results of the most careful and reliable experiments that have been made in the world. As such it merits confidence, and that is all we ask for it. I3STI3EI>E -Continued from Seeond Page oX CoTrei; PAGE Nitrate of Soda not a substitute for other plant-food 60, 67, 83 Nitrate vs. Ammonia 72 Nitrate of Soda, great reduction in the price of 4 Nitrate of Soda, profit of using., j Nitrate of Soda, now much prod- uce from the use of 9 Nitrate of Soda, profit of using in Germany n Nitrate of Soda should be applied at one dressing 42, 85 Nitrate of Soda, fractional dress- ings keep the roots of plants near the surface 43, 87 Nitrate of Soda vs. Insects 66 Nitrate of Soda, should it be sown at once or at different times while the crop is growing ? 85 Nitrogen must be converted into Nitrate 4, 30, 43, 56, 80 Nitrogen, its great value as ma- nure 3 Nitrogen in stable manure 7 Nitrogen, amount of in'different crops?.. 9 Nitrogen, necessary to prodttce maximum crops 12 Nitrogen in garden soil 54 Oats 9 Oats, Experiments at the South Carolina Experiment Station. . . 29 OatSj Experiments of Charles Fairchild, Conn 29 Oats, Experiments of Patrick Dick- son , 30 Oats, Experiments of Lawes & Gilbert on 29 Oats, Spring, how to sow Nitrate on 89 Oats, Winter, how to sow Nitrate on * -. .. 87 Oats, yield of with Nitrate of Soda and Superphosphate at Moreton Farm 30 Oats, Nitrate of Soda and Super- phosphate increased the yield of 400 per cent ... 29 Onion Bulbs injured by the care- less use of fertilizers 96 Onions, how to sow Nitrate of So- da on 92 Onions, Nitrate of Soda for 52, 70 Orchards, how to sow Nitrate on. 92 Pansies, Nitrate of Soda for Parsnips 69, Pears, Dwarf ?eed Nitrates Peas Potatoes 10. Potatoes, Ammonia injurious to. Potatoes, Experiments on by E. S. Carman Potatoes, Experiments on by Lawes & Gilbert Potatoes, how to sow Nitrate on. Potatoes, Nitrate vs. Ammonia for Potatoes, 250 pounds Nitrate of Soda capable of producing an increase of 184 bushels per acre of Potatoes, crops that should be sown after PAGE Potatoes, more profitable than wheat 7 Produce, how much from the use of Nitrate of Soda 9 Raspberries, Nitrate of Soda for. 62 Renting land on shares 6 Ruta-bagas 10,67 Ruta-bagas, Ammonia-salts check their growth 74 Ruta-bagas, Experiments on at Cirencester 30 R-uta-bagas, Experiments on by Mr. Holmes 40 Ruta-bagas, Experiments on by Patrick Dickson 1 40 Rye 9,33 Rye, how to sow Nitrate on 87 Salsify 82 Scovel, Dr., experiments of on tobacco 50 Soil, amount of nitrogen in garden 54 Soil, amount of water in 86 Strawberries, Nitrate of Soda for 61 Sugar, an increase of 3030 pounds or, per acre produced by the use of Nitrate of Soda alone. . . 37 Sugar, can we grow our own? ... 38 Sugar Beets clean and enrich the land 39 Sugar Beets 10 Sugar Beets, Nitrate of Soda for. 36 Swede Turnips, see ruta-bagas. Tobacco, Experiments on by Dr. Scovel at the Ky. Exp. Station. 51 Tobacco, Nitrate of Soda for young plants go Tomatoes, Experiments on by Prof. Voorhecs 64 Turnips 10, 39, 67, 82 "Water, amount of in an acre of soil 86 Weeds and Nitrate of Soda 63 Wheat 9, 69 Wheat, Experiments on at Ciren- cester 17 Wheat, Experiments on at Wo- burn 21 Wheat, Experiments by the mem- bers of the Bath and West of England Ag. Societies 18 Wheat, Lawes & Gilbert's Exper- iments on 13 Wheat, Nitrate vs. Ammonia for. 76 Wheat, Nitrate vs. Farm Yard Manure for 78 Wheat, Spring, how to sow Ni- trate on 89 Wheat, the remarkable effect of Nitrate on 80 Wheat, Winter, how to sow Ni- trate on . . . 87 Wheat, yield per acre in the United States 12 Wheat, twenty crops of in siic- cession on the same land 14 Wheat, profit of using Nitrate of Soda as a top dressing for 18 Wheat, the reduction in price of, not so great as the reduction in the price of Nitrate .of Soda — iS