SOILS FKHTITJZFJtS. 817 



Metiicxls of ]ili\sic;il. iiiccli.niiicnl, j^^'oldiiical. iind cliciiiical analysis ol" soils 

 are liriolly dcscrilM'd. 



Soil survey field book (('. S. Dcpt. Aijr., Bur. kloils, >^on iiurvcy Field Book. 

 1906, pp. 310, fuj. 1). — This i^ a revision of Instructions to Field Parties and 

 Description of Soil Tyi)es, i)ublisLied in 1904, in which an attempt has been 

 made to correlate the soils of the United States in the li^dit of the addi- 

 tional iuforuiation which has been obtained from soil surveys since that 

 lime, only such changes being made as were considered necessaiy to bring 

 each soil into its proper place in the classification. 



The book contains directions for surveying soils; classification of soils 

 according to type, class, and series ; instructions for estimating and mapping 

 alkali ; methods of determining total salts in water ; instructions for the 

 qualitative determination of alkali salts; instructions regarding the collec- 

 tion of laboratory samples and the iirei)aration of reports ; descriptions of 

 established soil types; indexes of soil tyjtes arranged alphabetically by 

 crops and series and by States; and an alphabetical list giving number and 

 page of soil survey reports in which the different descriptions of soils are 

 found. 



Alkali soils of the United States, C. W. Dorsey {V. 8. Dept. Agr., Bur. Soils 

 Bui. J), I) p. 1 ',)(!. piia. 13). — This is a review of literature and sunuuary of pres- 

 ent information, dealing with the alkali content of arid soils, comparison 

 of soils of arid and humid regions, origin of allcali, kinds of alkali, accuuuila- 

 tion of alkali in the soil, and resistance of plants to alkali, with a resume 

 of the work of agricultural experiment stations on alkali soils, and the 

 soil and alkali surveys in the irrigated districts, laboratory investigations, 

 and reclamation experiments by the Bureau of Soils. 



Analyses of soils, C. F. Juritz {Rj)t. Senior Anal. Cape Good Hope, 1905, pp. 

 31, 32). — Percentage of flue earth passing A-mm. mesh sieve and partial 

 chemical analyses of soil passing 1-mm. and i-mm. mesh sieves are rei)orted 

 (water, organic matter, chlorin, and nitrogen in the first case and lime, i)otash, 

 and phosphoric acid in the second) for 47 samples of soil from different 

 parts of the f'ape of Good Hope. 



On certain iDhysical properties of sands and the method of their determina- 

 tion, E. J. KuiiLER {Titer eiiiit/e physikalisclic Eificnschaften de.s Sandes u)id 

 die Methoden cw deren Bestimmuinj. Nuremherfj : f . E. Sebald, 1906, pp. 85, 

 pi. 1, fiffs. .5).— This thesis discusses and gives the results of studies of those 

 properties of sand — size and shape of particles, porosity, relation to movement 

 of water, etc. — which are of special importance to the engineer. The x'esults, 

 however, are also of importance from the standpoint of the physics of soil 

 moisture. 



A list of references to the literature of the sultject is given. 



Contributions to our knowledge of the composition of humus, E. J. Miche- 

 LET (ArcJi. Math, or/ \(iturridcii-'^l:.. 27. \o. 7, pi>. IS). — Ten samples of decayed 

 wood, lake mud, or cultivated soils were examined for their contents of water, 

 ash, organic substances, nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, pentosans, methyl pento- 

 sans, methoxyl number, the object in view being to ascertain the variations 

 in the pentosan contents of natural humus substances and the relation between 

 the methyl pentosans and the pentosans, as well as to examine whether the 

 presence of methyl groups combined with oxygen (O-CII,,) in tlie humus could 

 lie proved by the so-called methoxyl number. — f. w. woll. 



The influence of long-continued rains on the impoverishment of soils, 

 L. (jRANDE.w (Jour. Afir. J'nit.. ii. .'<er., 11 (1906). Xo. 11. i>p. 521. .7..'?). --This 

 deals especially with the influence of long-continued rains in checking nitrifl- 



