UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 



IN 



AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES 



Vol. 3, No. 10, pp. 271-282 June 22, 1918 



DOES CaCO» OR CaSO* TREATMENT AFFECT 



THE SOLUBILITY OF THE SOIL'S 



CONSTITUENTS ? 



BY 



C. B. LIPMAN and W. F. GERICKE 



In 1850, Thompson 1 showed that when soil is shaken with a solution 

 of sulphate of ammonia, calcium sulphate is brought into the solu- 

 tion. Using this observation as a basis, Way 2 proceeded, in a classical 

 investigation, to study the nature of the phenomenon. He found that 

 when the calcium sulphate goes into solution as observed by Thompson, 

 there is an amount of base in the form of calcium and of other bases 

 set free in the solution equivalent to the amount of ammonium base 

 which is absorbed by the soil. From this fact and his observation that 

 clay carries the constituent which thus reacts with the sulphate of 

 ammonia. Way argued that there exist in the clay certain "double 

 silicates" of the alkalies and alkali earths with aluminum, which are 

 the active bodies in the reaction under consideration. He never proved 

 that such double silicates actually exist in the "clay" of the soil, but 

 believed them to be present there because his artificially prepared 

 double silicates of calcium and aluminum, of sodium and aluminum, 

 and others, behaved toward salt solutions like the clay, and lost their 

 absorptive and reactive powers, like clay, on ignition. In contra- 

 distinction to Liebig's view that the precipitation by soils of salts from 

 solution constitutes merely a physical phenomenon. Way believed that 

 the Thompson experiment, which typifies snch soil-sail phenomena, 

 represents, really, a chemical reaction. Way's view became generally 



i Thompson, H. S., On the absorbent power of soils, Jour. Hoy. Agr. Soc, vol. 

 11, p. 68, 1850. 



-Way, J. T., On the power of soils to absorb manure, ibid., vol. 11, p. 313, 

 1850, and vol. 13, p. 123, 1852. 



