THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST AND BEEKEEPER

How to Fertilize

VERY farmer knows that plants need Food
as much as cattle. He knows, too, that
plants cannot get all the Food they need
out of the ground alone. He must supply them
with certain Foods himself, or they will not thrive
and bear their full yield of fruit. Exactly as he
supplies bay and oats to his horse, so he must
supply Nitrogen and phosphate to his plants.
He may buy these in the open market exactly as
he does his hay or his oats, or he can buy them
in combination. Moreover, there is no secret
value in the "complete fertilizer," it is nothing
more nor less than the ingredients combined and
sold at a higher price. Nitrogen is by far the
most expensive as well as the most effective
of plant foods, and it will pay the farmer
well to stop and think before he buys it in this
combination form or waits season after season for
legume nitrogen or organic nitrogen to become
available.
These compounds generally averaging 8-2-2
do not supply what nature requires, for the crops
take out more nearly the equivalent of a 2-4-3 ;
that is why we can in most cases and in most
soils use Nitrate alone as a straight top dressing,
and the earlier the better.
Translated into Commercial Fertilizer terms,
the comparison is as follows :
What the
What         Average
Nature         Brand
Requires.      Supplies
Phosphoric Acid. .. 2.02          8.00
Nitrogen.......... 4.33           2.00
Potash............  3.65.         2.00
The Best and Cheapest Nitrogen
The cheapest and most practical form in
which to furnish Nitrogen to plants is Nitrate of
Soda. In the rainless region of Chile are stored
away vast quantities of Nitrogen in what are
known as Nitrates-the only form in which
Nitrogen can be utilized by plants. The Nitrogen
which exists in organic, vegetable or animal
matter-that is, roots, stems, dead leaves, weeds,
leather, tankage, dried blood-and Nitrogen as
well in the form of Ammonia salts, must first be
changed to Nitrate before it can be taken up b-
plants. This change is dependent upon condi-
tions of weather. If the season be backward,
or there be a prolonged drought, this change may
be so retarded as to deprive the plant altogether
of Nitrate Food at the very time it needs it most ;
moreover, certain mineral forms of commercial
Nitrogen leave acid residues in the soil. Nitrate
of Soda, on the other hand, is entirely indepen-
dent of weather and leaves the soil sweet. It is
immediately available under all circumstances,
for it is readily soluble, and as soon as it comes
within reach of the roots of plants it is taken up
by them. It can, therefore, readily be seen that
the practical value of various forms of Nitrogen
ranges from nothing at all, where conditions of
temperature or soil prevent Nitration, to 100 per
cent. of Nitrate of Soda, where Nitration has
already completely taken place. Moreover, the
process of transforming the Nitrogen of cotton
seed meal, dried fish, dried blood, tankage, and
other Nitrogeneous constituents into Nitrate is
very wasteful, for much valuable nitrogen is
lost in the process, as well as by natural oxida-
tion. Official soil experiments have shown that
100 pounds of Nitrogen in these organic forms
has only about one-half to three-fourths the
manurial value of 100 pounds of Nitrogen in its
NITRATED form of Nitrate of Soda.
A Great Saving
P4In view of these facts it seems extraordinary
that farmers should continue to purchase their
Nitrogen in compounded form in a ready mixed
fertilizer, when they can procure it much cheaper,
and ready for the plants' immediate use, in the
formlof Nitrate of Soda.
Nitrogen is often in a form which is not avail-
able as food for the plants, for it must first be
converted into Nitrate. The time required to do
this varies from a few days to a few years, accord-
ing to the temperature of the soil and the kind
and condition of the materials used.

It must be recognized that the grower should
have a chance to derive some profit from the use
of a fertilizer, and wise buying is a prerequisite
to successful use.
How it Helps Crops
If a young pig or a young calf does not have an
abundance of the right kind of feed when it is
young, it becomes stunted in growth, and never
recovers fully, no matter how judiciously it is
afterwards fed. The intelligent cultivator has
learned that this holds good in the feeding of
plants. Nitrogen is the element which enters
most largely into the building up of the plant
itself-roots, stems and leaves. Most plants

quently with sulphate of lime, converts any
alkali residue into harmless forms of soda.
In most of our experiments where Nitrate was
used alone at the rate of only 100 pounds per acre,
with no further applications of fertilizers to the
plots, a decidedly marked effect was noticed.
This speaks very well indeed for Nitrate of Soda
not leaching out of the soil. The readily soluble
elements of fertility are the readily available
elements. The natural capilliarity of soils,
doubtless, is in most instances a powerful factor
in retaining all the readily soluble elements of
fertility, otherwise all the fertility of the world
would, in a season or two, leach away into the
ocean, and be permanently lost. A case is yet
to be seen where the after-effects of Nitrate are
not distinguishable, and in most cases such
effects have been marked. The 2,000 or more

Why Europe Makes Bigger Crops Than America

Average Production of European
Crops is as follows :
Wheat ............. 33 bushels per acre
Oats...............  45
Potatoes........... 199.84
Cotton in Egypt .... 400 pounds
Europe uses a Home-Mixed Nitrate Fer-
tilizer containing 8 per cent. of Phosphoric
Acid and 42 per cent. of Nitrate Nitro-
gen.

Average Production of American
Crops is as follows :
Wheat............. 14 bushels per acre
O ats................  40
Potatoes...........  97.15
Cotton............ 185 pounds      "
America uses a Fertilizer containing 8 per
cent. of Phosphoric Acid and 2 per cent.
of Nitrogen which is mostly not readily
available.

The difference ifi yields is largely due to larger amount of Nitrate Nitrogen used
in Europe per acre as Nitrate of Soda.     Our small American acre yields are due
to failure to appreciate this necessity.
Write for " What Chilean Nitrate Has Done In the Farmers' Own Hands."

Chilean Nitrate Committee

need to take up the greater part of their Nitrogen
during the early stages of their growth, as in oats.
It is plain, therefore, that the cultivator cannot
afford to overlook Nitrate, and thus endanger
the chances of his crops, which must have Nitro-
gen in a form the growing plants can use. The
presence of Nitrate at the outset enables the
plant to get its food WHEN it needs it most, and
develops a vigorous growth of roots, leaves and
stems capable of withstanding the scorching rays
of the sun or sudden changes of temperature,
disease, or the attacks of parasites. It is then
able to mature properly. Without Nitrate
present, the young plant will fail to attain stem
and leaf growth sufficient to mature its fruit or
grain. Why take chances with makeshifts or
substitutes when the real thing is 100 per cent.
effective ?
Nitrate of Soda is of high value for early crops,
such as peas, corn, beets, cabbage, where rapid
maturity is desirable. It is a special help to
hay, grain, rye, wheat, timothy, cereals and
orcfiards, all of which are unable to obtain suffi-
cient Nitrogen from the soil just when they need
it. It is a great specific in the production of
sugar beets, potatoes, cotton, cane, and apples,
or other fruits.
Small fruits, such as blackberries, currants,
raspberries and gooseberries, which need a
steady, even growth, are greatly benefited by
Nitrate of Soda, which can be furnished all
ready for digestion when the plants require it.
The Rational and Irrational Use
of Nitrate of Soda
Everywhere in the world where there is pro-
gressive experiment station work, the unique
qualities of Nitrate of Soda are putting it ahead
of every other Nitrogenous plant food. Nobody
who advocates the rational use of fertilizers ever
recommends such large quantities of Nitrate of
Soda per acre as would result in any abnormal
accumulation of alkali salts. Moreover, the use
of acid phosphates, associated as they are fre-

DR. WM. S. MYERS
25 Madison Avenue, New York, U.S.A

tons of active service soil in-an acre of land have
a powerful holding capacity for all the useful,
available elements of fertility.  0
How to Use Nitrate
Recent experience suggests that Nitrate may
be applied as a Top Dressing to best advantage
as soon as growth starts in the Spring, or even
better, before seeding or planting.
Nitrate of Soda should be thoroughly culti-
vated in, as should other fertilizers, so that they
may properly nourish the plant roots of the
seeded and cultivated crops during the growing
season. Most fertilizers should not touch the seed.
Nitrate has no acid residue to leave behind
and it will leave nothing deleterious in your soil
after using. It will enable you to overcome the
effects of droughts and frosts in the shortest
possible time and prolong the bearing period of
your trees. Nitrate does not have to wait to
get busy.
Valuable Books Free
Numerous books have been written on
the value of Nitrate of Soda in agriculture.
These books deal with questions on which
progressive farmers cannot afford to form
incorrect opinions.
If you are farming to make money you
owe it to yourself to send for the free books
which pertain to your crop,. If you want
to know what farmers have done both in
America and Europe, who grow the same
crops as you do, these books will tell you.
If you have any doubt on how valuable
Nitrate of Soda would be to your particular
crop, you should get all the available infor-
mation you possibly can on the subject.
These booklets are free-write for them,
addressing
Dr. Wm. S. Myers,
Chilean Nitrate Committee,
25 Madison Avenue, New York, U.S.A.
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March, 1919.

ix.