428 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



calcium nitrate replaced one-half of the ammonium sulphate especially good 

 results were obtained in those pots to which bone meal had been applied. Vivi- 

 anite and pure ferrous phosphate ga^-e very good results. The phosphoric acid 

 of iron and aluminum phosphates showed a relatively high availability, and 

 iiicreasing amounts of calcium carbonate up to 1 per cent of the soil had very 

 little depressing effect on their action, while producing very unfavorable effects 

 on the action of tricaleium phosphate in the form of bone meal and phosphorite. 

 Superphosphate, precipitated phosphate, and Thomas slag were, as in previous 

 experiments, less unfavorably affected by calcium carbonate. 



On the after effect on moor soils of Palmaer phosphate, Thomas slag, 

 and superphosphate, H. voN Feilitzen (Jour. Landtv., 59 (1911), No. 4. PP- 

 371-374; abs. in Jour. Chcin. 8oc. [London], 102 (1912), No. 591, II, p. 85).— 

 These experiments were carried out in wooden casks, sunk in the soil, with 

 thoroughly decomposed moor soil, rich in lime and nitrogen. The pants used 

 were oats, potatoes, lupines, and kohl-rabi. 



The Palmaer phosphate appeared to be as effective the second year after ap- 

 plication as superphosphate and in fact was in a few cases superior. The after 

 effects of the Thomas slag were more pronounced than in the case of either of 

 the other fertilizers. 



Influence of rice bran upon the manurial value of phosphoric acid con- 

 tained in oil cakes, Y. Kida (Jour. Col. Agr. Imp. Univ. Tokyo, 1 (1911), ?Io. 3, 

 pp. 367-379). — The experiments here reported were undertaken to determine 

 whether the organic phosphorus, which is to a considerable extent in the com- 

 paratively unavailable form of phytin in oil cakes, can be made more assimilable 

 by plants by adding to the oil cakes a material like rice bran, which is rich in 

 phytase, an enzym shown by Suzuki et al. (E. S. R., 19, p. 966) to be capable of 

 splitting phytin into a soluble inorganic phosphorus compound and inosit. 



It was found that, although phytase occurs in both rape seed cake and soy 

 bean cake, the materials used in the experiments reported, its action is very 

 small. When rice bran was mixed with the oil cakes there was a marked 

 increase in the production of soluble inorganic phosphorus from the organic 

 phosphorus compounds, and the manurial value of the cakes was greatly in- 

 creased. This result was obtained not only with pressed cakes freed from fats 

 and oils but also with the untreated cakes. 



Some bacteriological effects of liming', P. E. Brown (loica Sta. Research 

 Bui. 2, pp. 49-107, figs. 9). — These experiments, which were carried out with 20 

 earthenware pots, each containing 30 lbs, of sifted, fresh, typical Wisconsin 

 drift soil, were designed to determine the effects of applications of ground lime- 

 stone on certain groups of soil bacteria. The ground limestone was applied in 

 amounts representing ^, 1, 2, and 3 tons per acre, and thoroughly mixed 

 with the soil. Ten pots were left bare and 10 were planted to oats. By means 

 of culture methods, which are fully described, studies were made of the total 

 bacterial content and the ammonifying, nitrifying, dentrifying, and nitrogen 

 fixing power of the soil. 



The general conclusions reached were that " applications of lime up to 3 tons 

 per acre lead to an increase in the numbers of bacteria developing on ' modified 

 synthetic ' agar. They also produce an increase in ammonification, nitrification, 

 and in nitrogen fixation when these processes are tested by the beaker method. 

 These increases are in all cases almost proportionate to the amount of lime 

 applied. 



" Natural increases in numbers of bacteria tend to obscure the effects of appli- 

 cations of lime, while natural decreases make them more pronounced. 



" Peptone solutions do not permit of the determining of the largest number 

 of bacteria which will destroy humus with the production of ammonia. 



