Lysimeter Experiments 75 



the material. This being the case, the loss of the sulfur is not a matter of 

 much moment, but it must be remembered that it causes also loss ol 

 lime. 



Other experiments on removal of sulfur in drainage water 



Not many data have been published indicating the loss of sulfur in 

 drainage water. Hanamann (1898) reports the results of experiments 

 with lysimeters in which several soils were placed and the drainage was 

 collected from soil cropped and from soil uticropped. The period during 

 which the drainage was collected was from April 1 to October 30 of one 

 year. The quantity of sulfur in the drainage water for this period was 

 44 pounds per acre from a basalt soil and 37 pounds from an alluvial 

 soil, both of which remained bare of vegetation during the entire period. 

 In other lysimeters crops were raised on the alluvial soil. From the 

 tank on which maize was raised there were 29 pounds of sulfur in the 

 drainage water, and from that on which red clover grew there were 15 

 pounds. 



In the lysimeter experiments by Von Seelhorst and Fresenius (1904), 

 already referred to, sulfur was determined among the ingredients in the 

 drainage water. Four lysimeter tanks were used in this experiment. 

 Tanks 1, 2, and 3 were planted to oats; tank 3 was seeded also to clover 

 and a crop of clover was harvested the same year. Tank 4 was planted 

 to beets. The soil was a loam. The drainage water was collected thru a 

 period beginning on April 1 and ending the last of the following February. 

 The average removal of sulfur in the drainage water was as follows: 248 

 pounds per acre from tanks 1 and 2 ; 94 pounds from tank 3 ; 258 pounds 

 from tank 4. The striking feature of the experiment is the small quantity 

 of sulfur leached from the soil on which clover grew. 



Gerlach (1912) reports experiments with the lysimeters at Bromberg 

 in which a record was kept of the removal of sulfur in the drainage water. 

 Soils from five fields were used, and one tank of each soil was fertilized 

 and one was left unfertilized. The experiment here reported covers the 

 thirteen months beginning on August 1, 1909, and ending on August 31, 

 1910. Previous to this time all the tanks had been cropped each year. For 

 the period of this experiment the soils were all unplanted from August 1 

 until the next spring, when one-half the number were planted to oats 

 and one-half were fallowed. The cropped tanks were fertilized with 



75 



