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Amount Of Application

Categories: MIXTURES FOR CROPS

In common practice fertilizers are not applied

freely enough when they are used at all. The exception to this rule may

be found in the case of small applications to cold and inert soils to

force growth in the first few weeks of a plant's life. It is difficult

to see how 80 or 100 pounds of fertilizer can affect an acre of land

one way or the other, but experience teaches that such an amount can do

so in respect to youn
plants. Phosphoric acid has peculiar power in

forcing some development of roots in a small plant, and a small

application in the drill or row may help the plants to gain ability to

forage for themselves.



In early spring a small application of nitrate of soda has marked

effect, tiding the plants over a period of need until the soil is ready

to give up a part of its store.



If a soil is not fertile, and fertilizers are needed as an important

source of plant-food throughout the season, the application should be

liberal. If it is necessary to plant a field that is deficient in

fertility, expending labor and money for tillage and seed, the only

rational course is to furnish all needed plant-food for a good yield.

There may be little net profit from the one crop, but there will be

more than could be obtained without the liberal fertilization, and the

soil will be better equipped for another crop. This applies, in a

notable degree, to fertilization of a wheat crop with which timothy and

clover will be seeded. The difference in cost of 350 pounds of a

high-grade fertilizer and 150 pounds of a low-grade one, when applied

to a poor soil under these circumstances, may be recovered in the grain

crop, and at the same time a good sod will be made possible for the

permanent improvement of the land. It is a safe business rule that land

should be left uncultivated unless enough plant-food can be provided in

some way for a good yield. The man who cannot incur a heavy fertilizer

bill, when necessary, should restrict acreage for his own sake.



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