Abstract
Work on nitrogen in West Indian soils is reviewed. It is concluded that the amount of nitrogen in the soil depends on vegetation, rainfall and soil drainage and that the supply of nitrogen available to plants frequently depends on rainfall and on the base-status of soils rather than on the total amount of present. This implies that laboratory tests for nitrogen supplying potential have little value. Fertilizer dressings should be based on soil type, climate and crop demand; vegetative crops on long cultivated, base-deficient soils are more likely to respond to fertilizer N than those on newly cultivated soils with high base status.
