SOILS — FEKTILIZERS. 119 



avornjro cost of from $1.' to !?-"> fin acre. ... To reclaim lands containing any 

 considerable aniounl of alkali will cost from .$.'50 to .$.")() an acre, including the 

 cost of installing drains. leveling the land, and constructing necessary levees 

 and diivcs, as well as the cost of Hooding. The item of leveling has been esti- 

 mated at from .$."> to .^l.'j. which would cheapen the cost of reclamation just so 

 mn<li in case the land had previously lieen leveled." 



Soil fertility, M. AViiitnky (T\ ,S'. Dcpt. Afji:. Fanners' liiil. .i'll, iip. -W, //y.v. 

 ;?). — An address delivered I)efore the Kich Neclc Farmers" Club of Queen Anne 

 Co.. Maryl.-ind. " in which an endeavor was made to idacc in the hands of the 

 practical farmer the results of recent investigations of this important problem 

 couched in simple language and without a discussion of tlic tcclmical scientific 

 details uiion which the conchisions rest." 



The maintenance of soil fertility in grain farming, .T. II. Pettit {Mo. BfJ. 

 Agr. M(i. liiiL. '> (1!)0G). Xo. S. pp. 2-^-^lS. pi. J. fii/s. /, ). — The use of insoluble 

 phosphates in connection with farm manure or green manuring with legununons 

 plants to supply an abundance of decaying organic matter in the soil, and thus 

 render tlie insoluble ])li()si)hates more available, is advocated. 



Our soil needs managing ( Af/riciiltiirc \\chr.]. .'> (1906). Xo. 2. pp. G-13). — 

 It is pointed out that the loss of fertility in Nebraska soils, which is becoming 

 quite pronounced in many cases, is not due to lack of mineral elements jf fer- 

 tility, but to decline in humus and impairment of physical condition. Methods 

 of ci'opping and tillage which will repair these deficiencies are discussed. 



Example of how analysis of soil may be of use, A. Mayeb (Jour. Laiidir., 

 54 {1906), Xo. 1, pp. .',7-.j0; ahs. in Jour. Chein. Hoc. [London^. 90 {WOli), No. 

 522, li, p. 2.'i9). — The determination of the potash requirements of 4 tobacco 

 soils from Deli. Sumatra, by extraction witli dilute hydrochloric acid is reported. 

 Loss on ignition agreed approxim.-itely with humus only in case of sandy and 

 sandy peat soils. 



Clover sickness of the soil, P. Kossovich {Zhur. Opuifn. Afiroii. (Rusts. Jour. 

 E.rpt. Laiiflir.). (! (1905), Xo, 5, pp. 515-599). — The author describes an ex- 

 tended series of experiments conducted during G years. 



Numerous pot experiments were supplemented b.v a few field experiments. 

 Clover sickness appeared in i)ot cultures as well as in the field. The soils used 

 were chernozems and podzol clays. Parallel experiments were conducted with 

 soils from clover-sick fields and from fields on which no clover had been 

 raised. The results in general lead to the conclusion that clover sickness is 

 directly connected with the impoverishment of the soil in nutritive substances, 

 usually phosphoric acid, in the first place, and then in potash. The author finds 

 no reason whatever for the assumption of the existence of a specific clover 

 sickness due to the formation in the soil by the clover plant itself of compounds 

 directly injurious to clover. — p. fikeman. 



The loss of nitrogen from soils, II. Snyder (Minnesota Sta. Bui. 9.'i. pp. 

 lSS-19'i). — In connection with studies of the influence of different methods of 

 f.ii-ming upon the nitrogen content of soils which have been reported in pre- 

 vious bulletins of the station, samples of soil from typical farms in Minnesota 

 were obtained and analyzed in ISO-l. Ten years later samples from the same 

 fields were a.gain analyzed, and the losses of nitro,gen which had occurred dur- 

 ing the period were determined. 



The results, as briefly reported in tliis article, show tiiat "the loss of nitro- 

 gen from 4 grain farms in 10 years amounted to from 3 to 5 times more than was 

 removed by the crops. This loss was due to the rapid decay of the humus and 

 the liberation of the uitx'ogen. which forms an essential part of the humus. 

 The losses of nitrogen from these grain farms were practically the same as 



