IN THE series of articles entitled "Fertilizers for the Garden," by Joseph Harris, No. XII, in the May American Garden, criticises the Rural New- Yorker, which, for several years part, has deplored the indiscriminate use of nitrate of soda, or of soluble nitrogen in any form, unless it is well known that the land is amply supplied with the essential mineral, food constituents of potash or phosphoric acid. In the Rural's reply, which appeared in the June number, the editor of that journal endeavors to impress it upon our readers that, if we err at all, gardeners and farmers had better err on the side of economy, and use nitrogenous fertilizers in an experimental way, so as to ascertain to what extent it may profitably be applied. In general, it is safe to say that we may apply potash and phosphates to our land in unlimited quantity, since they remain in the 6oil for the use of future crops, if not needed by those of the current season. Not so with the costly soluble nitrates or salts of ammonia.

All that is not used by the current season's crop is virtually lost.

The Rural editor's views, as expressed in his reply to Mr. Harris, above alluded to, have been forcibly corroborated by a pamphlet written by Prof. Paul Wagner, director of the Agricultural Experiment station at Darmstadt, Germany, and translated by Prof. Charles Wellington. He holds that to place in the soil a surplus of phosphoric acid and potash is quite right, while nitrogen should be measured out as accurately as possible.

How much phosphoric acid is needed in a particular case, i. e., for a particular plant on a particular soil, in order to produce the greatest possible yield, cannot be closely calculated. The one soil is rich in potash, the other poor; the one rich in phosphoric acid, the other poor. The one crop needs much easily soluble potash or phosphoric acid, the other little. The one soil yields the phosphoric acid, applied in easily soluble form, directly; the other renders it less soluble, and demands a relatively heavier manuring to produce an equal result. The one soil has never, or very rarely, received phosphates, the other large quantities almost yearly; and it is possible that the latter possesses a store equal to the demand for several years. How can the farmer find his way through all these difficulties ? He cannot. Nothing remains but to apply an excess of both food constituents; and in this there is indeed no danger, for potash and phosphoric acids are substances which the soil binds up and preserves for later crops, in case the one immediately following demands them only partially or not at all. With nitrogen it is quite different. Nitrogen is not bound up by the soil: it remains freely movable.

The residue from a crop would be in danger, during the winter months, of being washed into the subsoil and lost.

£. S. Carman.