CHEMISTRY 



The activities of the Chemists, as heretofore, have fallen undcr 

 three divisions: research, routine analytical work, and instruction. 

 The facilities for research in soil alkalinity have been improved much 

 by the construction of a screened garden so that now laboratory 

 investigations may be accompanied by pot cultures and even small 

 plot experiments. Such facilities are indispensable for protection 

 against birds, insects, and rabbits, which because of the scarcity of 

 green food in a semi-arid country preclude experiments on a small 

 quantitative scale in the open. The general laboratory equipment 

 has been improved by completing the equipment of a dark and 

 nearly constant temperature room. The room is located near the 

 center of the agricultural chemistry laboratories in the new Agri- 

 culture Building. Besides desks for calorimeter and polariscope 

 the equipment includes a special table for ether extractions. A 

 large refrigerator occupies the space beneath the table usually given 

 to cupboards and is provided with water coils, which supply ice 

 water for condensing purposes. For several months in the year 

 tap water cannot be used for condensing ether, a fact that hereto- 

 fore has worked great inconvenience, requiring special cooling de- 

 vices or the postponement of fat determinations until the winter 

 months. 



Routine analytical work has covered a considerable range of 

 material. Many irrigating waters and soils for alkali have been 

 examined for farmers in the State, and much analytical work was 

 required in connection with expert advice furnished other branches 

 of the State and Federal Governments. The Chemist, accompanied 

 bv the Agronomist of the Station, examined and reported on a num- 

 ber of parcels of land offered the State for a state prison farm. In 

 the case of all properties olTered soil and water tests were made at 

 the laboratory. 



During November and December the Chemist was again called 

 upon to serve on a commission, together with the Agronomist and 

 Horticulturist, whose duty it was to investigate the suitability of 

 the mesa at Yuma for citrus and other subtropical fruit culture, 

 when irrigated with the silty waters of the Colorado as proposed 

 by the U. S. Reclamation Service. The analytical and soil experi- 

 mental work required in. investigating this problem has occupied 

 the personnel and facilities of the laboratories for several weeks. 

 Total, acid soluble, and citric acid soluble potassium and phosphorus 

 are being determined on a number of typical soil samples from the 



