SOILS FERTILIZEES. 419 



22° C. storage, and for at least 4 days at 10° C. storage. If kept in a dark 

 place, a sample of water taken under the necessary precautions to aAoid aera- 

 tion can be preserved with formaldehyde for a reasonable length of time and 

 shipped to the laboratory without danger." 



SOILS— FERTILIZERS. 



A beneficial organic constituent of soils: Creatinin {U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. 

 Soils Bid. S3, pp. 4'f. pis. 3). — This is a continuation of investigations on the 

 nature and properties of the individual organic constituents of the soil (E. S. R., 

 25, p. 723). The bulletin contains an introduction by Oswald Schreiner on the 

 importance of beneficial soil constituents, and the following papers: 



The isolation of creatinin from soils, E. C. Shorey (pp. 11-22). — The method 

 of Balke for the separation of purin bases was adapted to the isolation of 

 creatinin from soils as follows: "An alkaline extract of the soil, made by treat- 

 ment for a short time with 2 per cent sodium hydroxid, was made exactly 

 reutral with acetic or sulphuric acid and filtered. The neutral filtrate was 

 heated to boiling and a little dextrose added and then Fehling's solution, 

 slightly in excess of that required by the dextrose present. The precipitate 

 formed was separated by filtration, well washed, and decomposed by hydrogen 

 sulphid. The filtrate from the copper sulphid was concentrated to a small 

 volume under reduced pressure, a small quantity of a concentrated solution of 

 zinc chlorid and a little sodium acetate added, and the whole allowed to stand 

 several days. Within a few hours crystals began to form, and in 48 hours 

 these were observed to have the characteristic appearance of creatinin zinc 

 chlorid. The crystals were separated from the mother liquor by filtration or, 

 when the quantity of material was very small, by placing the whole mass on a 

 porous plate. After separation the crystals were washed with a little cold 

 water, suspended in water and boiled with some freshly precipitated lead 

 hydroxid, filtered, and the filtrate concentrated to a small volume ; on standing 

 a short time crystals formed having the appearance, solubility, and color reac- 

 tion of creatinin." 



Creatinn was also obtained from portions of the same soil by alcoholic extrac- 

 tion and by extraction with water. The compound was found in stable manure 

 and cowpea vines, and in soils of widely different type and very widely sepa- 

 rated areas. It is pointed out that, although the quantity of creatinin in soils 

 is small, it is not negligible, being usually several parts per million of soil and 

 comparable with that of nitrates normally present, and that like the nitrates it 

 is probably a fluctuating quantity. 



The origin of creatinin in soils, M. X. Sullivan (pp. 23-32). — The particular 

 phase of the question studied was " the presence of creatinin in plants and 

 consequently in plant debris and the passage of the creatinin into the soil either 

 by the disintegration of the plant debris or as a result of cell sloughing or direct 

 passage from the living plant." It was found that " of samples of the same 

 soil, planted and unplanted. kept side by side in the greenhouse, the planted 

 soils gave larger amounts of creatinin. It would seem that the increase in the 

 amount of creatinin was connected in some way with plant growth. Creatinin 

 was also found in the water in which wheat seedlings had grown. The pres- 

 ence of creatinin in plants has not been previously reported. Various plants 

 were tested for creatinin and its presence definitely ascertained. It was found 

 in wheat grains, seedlings, and bran, in rye, clover, alfalfa, cowpeas, and pota- 

 toes. If, as suggested by several investigators, creatinin in the animal arises 

 as the result of the breaking up of albumin, then it seems reasonable to expect 

 that creatinin would be found in practically all plants. 



