80 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



porphyritic grauite. Tliey are acid and range from light to heavy loam. "The 

 moisture content, the percentage of organic matter, and the nitrogen are usually 

 rather low ; the lime and potash generally satisfactory ; but the phosphoric acid 

 is less so." 



The alluvial soils are all of good quality except an old leached alluvial of an 

 auriferous drift. The alluvials from grauite, although of excellent mechanical 

 condition, are inferior in chemical composition. 



The soil from light colored slate is " shallow, only 8 in., and the subsoils 

 stony. When cleared it is tolerably good grazing country but of no immediate 

 use for farming." The black chert and chloritie slate soils are a " deep shingly 

 loam of a rich coffee color in some places and light brown in other places." 

 They are stated to be superior soils excellently adapted for orchards and vine- 

 yards. Soils derived from an ironstone-conglomerate country are generally red 

 or chocolate. " They are typically sweet and fertile soils, excellently adapted 

 for grazing, orchard purposes, and general farming." The soils from white 

 sandstone-conglomerate are poor and acid, growing straggling gum trees and a 

 few oaks. 



The basalt soils show a good chemical composition, containing an average 

 percentage for nitrogen of 0.159, lime 0.597, potash 0.147, and phosphoric acid 

 0.207. Generally, basalt soils are stated to have a tendency to clog and to 

 become impervious in wet weather, on which account they require frequent 

 working and are probably excelled for general farming pur])oses by deep 

 alluvials of mixed granite and basalt. 



Soils of the Nyng'an Demonstration Farm, H. I. Jensen {Agr. Ga~. A". 8. 

 Wales, 22 (1911), No. 8, pp. 611, Gl'k). — Mechanical and chemical analyses of 

 6 soils from the Nyugan Demonstration Fai'm are reported and show a defi- 

 ciency in nitrogen and organic matter, satisfactory lime and phosphorus con- 

 tents, and a good potash content. 



The action of phosphorites on soils saturated and unsaturated with bases, 

 K. K. Gedkoits (Zhiir. Opytn. Agron. {Ru.s.s. Jour. Expt. Landic), 12 (1911), 

 No. 4, pp. 529-5-i6). — The author conceives of the soil as saturated and unsat- 

 urated with bases and distinguishes 3 classes of unsaturated soils, as follows: 

 (1) Those with acid reaction to litmus and an acid water extract. Such soils 

 are very deficient in bases and are mostly moor and heavy clay soils. (2) 

 Those with acid reaction to litmus but with neutral water extract. Such soils 

 are partly unsaturated with bases. (3) Those with neutral reaction to litmus 

 and neutral water extracts. These are slightly unsaturated. 



It is held that saturation with bases is not a function of the humus alone 

 but of the mineral constituents of the soil as well. There is an exchange of 

 bases between the organic and mineral constituents of an unsaturated soil, the 

 larger proportion of bases going over to either constituent, depending upon its 

 absorption capacity. 



Saturated and unsaturated soils varied in the character of their absorption 

 capacity in that there was an equal exchange of bases between added salt 

 solutions and saturated soils, whereas with unsaturated soils there was, in 

 addition to an exchange, an absorption of bases from the salt solution by the 

 soil. The extent of this absorption was dependent upon the degree of " non- 

 saturation " of the soil, the strength of the solution, and probably also on the 

 nature of the salt. 



The author found that the action of phosphorites was always pronounced on 

 unsaturated soils and that there was a relationship between the yield from 

 phosphorite and the degree of nonsaturation. He empha.sizes the importance of 

 further studies on this subject, pointing out that the degree of non.saturation 



