LYSIMETER EXPERIMENTS 



RECORDS FOR TANKS 1 TO 12 DURING THE YEARS 1910 TO 1914 INCLUSIVE 

 T. Lyttleton Lyon and James A. Bizzell 



The experience of farmers in many parts of New York State, and also 

 in other humid areas thruout the country, has indicated a tendency for 

 the soil to become acid with prolonged cultivation. Land that formerly 

 produced satisfactory crops of red clover gradually has become incapable 

 of doing so. Both experiment station results and farm experience have 

 shown that the ability to raise clover may be restored to these soils by 

 apphcations of hme. The acid condition of the soil has been attributed, 

 in part at least, to the removal of calcium and other bases in crops and 

 in drainage water. The extent of the removal in crops has frequently 

 been measured, but of the removal in drainage water less is known. 



The present experiment was designed to ascertain the extent to which, 

 and some of the conditions under which, calcium is removed in drainage 

 water and in crops from one or two rather prevalent soil types, and at 

 the same time to study certain of the changes that accompany the loss 

 of calcium. With this in view, the removal of magnesium, potassium, 

 sodium, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, and a few less important elements, 

 has been determined, in order to discover the relations between these 

 substances and to ascertain whether substitutions of one for another 

 occur in the soil with release in the drainage water of the replaced 

 constituent. 



Twelve tanks, the records of which for five years are here pubhshed, 

 were used in a study of certain systems of cropping in their effect on 

 the loss of calcium and the accompanying changes, and also of the effect 

 on these changes of the application of burnt lime and of potassium sulfate 

 fertilizer. Incidentally data were accumulated also on the relation of 

 percolation to rainfall and of certain methods of soil treatment to 

 percolation. 



Acknowledgment. — The authors wish to express their thanks to Mr. E. W. Leland for his services 

 in measuring anfl sampling the drainage water during the entire period of the experiment, and for super- 

 vising the cultural operations on the tanks and the plats. 



