EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 209 



REPOIIT OF THE CHP:M10AL SECTION. 



Director R. S. Shaw, 



College. 

 Dear Sir: 



The work of the Chemical Section for the year emling June oOth is 

 briefly summarized as follows : 



The close of the last fiscal year marked the termination of our control 

 of the fertilizer, feeding- stuffs, and insecticide inspection laws, and the 

 records pertaining thereto then in our possession were turned over to 

 the State Department of Agriculture. 



Much delay in the readjustment of the work of 'the Section was oc- 

 casioned by the uncertainty concerning the tenure of office of three 

 members of the staff who were not given contracts. Not until Januai*y 1st 

 was the matter finally decided Avhen Miss Bademer was given a contract 

 for the remainder of the year. Miss Grettenberger was transferred to the 

 Chemical Department of the College and Mr. O'Meara to the State 

 Department of Agriculture. 



This adjustment made it impossible to undertake any new lines of 

 work as the projects then in progress occupied the time of the entire staff. 



ADAMS FUND. 



Project 2b. — "The Physico-Chemical aspects of soil acidity." The in- 

 vestigation of the role of adsorption in soil acidity has yielded very 

 interesting results. A study of the nature of adsorption from solution 

 by some of the simpler adsorbents has been made. Data obtained by the 

 use of an activated ash-free charcoal indicate that many of the conflicting 

 results of other investigators are erroneous and due to impurities, and 

 it has been possible to reproduce and explain many of the contradictory 

 statements made concerning the nature of adsorption by charcoal. One 

 paper dealing with this phase of the work has been accepted for publi- 

 cation by the Journal of the American Chemical Society and another 

 paper is being prepared. 



Preliminary experiments with other and more complex adsorbents such 

 as fuller's earth and kaolin, which more closely resemble soils, have 

 yielded results that tend to greatly clarify our knowledge of the phenom- 

 enon known as soil acidity. 



Project 2 ba. — "The organic nitrogenous compounds of peat soils." 

 During the past year the work under this project has been confined to a 

 study of the acid amide fraction of the nitrogen. At present an attempt 

 is being made to deterinine quantitatively the dibasic amino acids in 

 peat and correlate these quantities with the amounts of acid amide 

 nitrogen. 



Project 2 e. — "A study of the preparation and properties of pure vege- 

 table proteins." It has been impossible to do any work on this project 

 during the year, and, consequently, it will be discontinued. 



