320 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



times. It is concluded that although there is no statistical evidence to show 

 what change has taken place the reports would indicate that the fertility of 

 Indian soils has been more or less in a stationary condition with a tendency 

 to improve under better treatment. The low rate of production in India as 

 compared with western nations is attributed mainly to the small amount of 

 capital employed. 



Modern soil investigations, K. O. Bjorlykke (TidssJcr. Norske Landbr., 

 1912, No. 2, Sup., pp. 60). — ^A lecture delivered in January, 1912, being a general 

 discussion of soil problems, the methods of soil investigations adopted in Ger- 

 many, pimgary, Bohemia, France, England, and the United States, and the 

 history of soil studies in Norway. A chapter on simple practical methods of 

 investigation of soils is included at the close of the pamphlet. 



On the degree of consistency and stiffness in soils, A. Atteeberg (K. 

 Landtlr. Akad. Eandl. och Tidskr., 51 {1912), No. 2, pp. 93-123, figs. 21).— The 

 author's method of classifying soils according to their physical characteristics 

 £S regards plasticity and firmness is given. Two forms of apparatus for the 

 determ'nation of firmness and plasticity figures are described and the results 

 obtained are discussed for purposes of soil classification. See also a previous 

 note (E. S K., 26, p. 220). 



Corrections in physical science, D. li. Narayana Rao {Hyderabad, Deccan, 

 India, 1912, pi. 1, pp. 17; pt. 2, The Rationale of Agriculture, pp. 31). — These 

 pamphlets deal particularly with physical factors controlling soil moisture and 

 the relation of tillage operations thereto. Attention is called to the fact that 

 soils have in many cases been shown to lose much more water by evaporation 

 and transpiration from plants than is supplied by precipitation, an apparent 

 yearly deficit of about 25 in. from the earth's surface being generally admitted. 

 The author maintains that the deficit is supplied and proper moisture conditions 

 maintained in the soil not by capillary rise from below, for " there is no such 

 thing as capillarity" as the term is generally understood, but by absorption of 

 aqueous vapor from the air which penetrates and permeates the soil in a so- 

 called process of " breathing." 



"For the vapor to be properly caught or for allowing every individual soil 

 grain to breathe well, the grains or particles must present to the air as much of 

 their surfaces as possible at the same time touching each other gently on all 

 sides. It is only then that perfect breathing of soils takes place. Where such 

 breathing is going on in nature the soils are highly fertile and centuries of 

 constant cultivation are unable to exhaust their fertility. I can quote as in- 

 stances almost all the new formations by geological actions. They are most 

 fertile. Nature is always digging and plowing and draining and making new 

 soils. The breathing of the earth is the greatest geological force in nature." 



The moisture content of packed and unpacked soils, F. T. Shutt (Canada 

 Expt. Farms Rpts. 1911, p. i72).— Further observations (E. S. R., 24, p. 421) on 

 the effect of subsurface packing in conserving soil moisture showed no very 

 great advantage from this practice, although it appeared that the packed land 

 started the season with slightly more moisture than that which had not been 

 so treated. 



Soil tank investigations, A. W. Blair (Florida Sta. Rpf. 1911, pp. XXXIT- 

 XXXIX, figs. Jf). — Experiments on the eJfect of different combinations of ferti- 

 lizers on the growth and health of orange trees growing in tanks at the station 

 (B. S. R., 25, p. 427) are reported, with measurements of rainfall, determina- 

 tions of moisture in the tank soils, and analyses of the drainage from the tanks 

 and of soils from a number of orange groves. 



The experiments have not proceeded far enough to give conclusive results. 

 It appears to be clearly indicated, however, that the soils of orange groves are 



