It is true that nitrate of soda is a stimulant of plants, and by rendering soil fertility immediately available may seem to reduce the supply later, and yet it is a most available forcing fertilizer if used with great caution, not over 200 pounds to the acre evenly scattered over the whole surface or a less amount, of course, if confined to particular areas.  If used in excess it may actually kill the plants.  Still nitrate of soda is being used actively and intelligently by nearly all growers of plants and must be counted on the whole a valuable agency.  If you can get stable manure, nothing is better as a complete plant food.  Application to strawberries must be made at the close of the season, rubbish scraped away and manure applied and allowed to stand on the surface during the early rains, being worked into the soil during the rainy season.  If the soil is light, sandy loam, too much coarse material must be avoided.  Therefore, well-rotted manure is important on such soils while on a heavy soil coarser material may be used to advantage if applied early in the rainy season.  If you have no well-rotted manure, a complete commercial fertilizer will give best results.

Late Applications of Nitrate.

I have some prune trees which blossomed some time ago and the prunes are already set, and of small size.  Would you recommend me to use an application of, say 100 pounds per acre of nitrate of soda, applied immediately, or is it a little too late in the season to get the desired result?

It would be perfectly safe to use 100 pounds of nitrate of soda to the acre well distributed now; in fact, you could safely use twice as much, but we doubt if you would get any benefit from it unless you should irrigate, for there is no reason to expect showers that would have penetrating powers enough to carry the nitrate any appreciable distance into the soil.  Of course, the nitrate could be plowed or cultivated in to a considerable depth, but that would probably result in losing moisture by deep opening or turning, which would do more harm than any gain which the nitrate produces, if it were to become available.  Our judgment would be, then, that it is too late for any benefit to accrue unless the land can be irrigated.

Charcoal is a Medicine, Not a Food.

Recently a lumberyard burned, leaving quite a quantity of charcoal.  I have a lot 50 x 150 feet in rhubarb.  Would the charcoal be of any service on that lot as a fertilizer?  I now have it well fertilized with horse manure, but would like to use the charcoal if it would be of any material assistance to the plants.

Charcoal is of no value as a fertilizer.  It is practically indestructible in the soil.  In fact, they are digging up now charcoal in the graves of ancient Egyptians, who departed this life five thousand years ago.  Charcoal has corrective influence in absorbing some substances which might make the soil sour or otherwise inhospitable to plants.  It has been found desirable sometimes to mix a certain amount of charcoal with soil used in potting plants for the purpose of preventing such trouble.  The only way to make your charcoal of any value as a fertilizer would be to set it on fire again and maintain the burning until it was reduced to ashes, which are a source of potash and, therefore, desirable, but it will probably cost more than the product of potash will be worth.