REPORT OF CHEAIIST OF SOILS AXD CROP 

 INVESTIGATION. 



J. T. Anderson. 



Dr. C. C. Thach, 



President Alabama Polytechnic Institute, 

 Auburn, Alabama. 

 Sir: 



The following- report of the work done -bv this depart- 

 ment during the year 1910 is respectfully submitted. 



\\'ith the exception of aliout five months given, as usual, 

 to the state fertilizer work, our attention was devoted en- 

 tirely to the prosecution of the Adams Project, the de- 

 termination of soil requirements by the analysis of the 

 cotton plant. 



The methods of investigation heretofore employed, with 

 two or three imj^ortant modifications, were continued, 

 namely, the observation of the simultaneous effect of ferti- 

 lization on the composition of the plant and on the crop yield. 

 The latter eft'ect was determined in all cases by cultivation 

 in open plots ; the former, the effect of fertilization on the 

 composition of the young plant, by the analysis of plants 

 drawn from the open plots, as well as of plants g-rown in 

 the same soil in wire baskets, the soil in the latter case be- 

 ing subjected to the same system of fertilizer treatment as 

 in the plots. Previous to 1910 our plot tests were conduct- 

 ed in co-operation with the agricultural department of the 

 station, all the material for our use being obtained from 

 selected correspondents of that department who were en- 

 gaged in The Co-operative Soil Test Experiments. In 1910 

 some material changes in the methods of fertilization were 

 made in these Co-operative Soil Test Experiments, which 

 made it necessary for us to look elsewhere for our material. 

 The services of some 8 or 10 independent co-operators in 

 dift'erent parts of the State w-ere secured for our work and 

 instructions sent them as to the manner of conducting the 

 experiments. Samples and data from these correspondents 

 are now being worked up in the laboratory. 



The sand culture experiments in clay cvfinders imbedded 

 in the ground for studying the effect of fertilization on the 

 composition of the plant, were continued. 



Another use for imbedded cylinders was found durmg- 



