318 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



tested by similar methods in 8-in. Wagner pots, in which the wheat was grown 

 for a much longer period than in the wire baskets. 



"As a result of the first year's experiments with the baskets, benefits resulted 

 from liming, both with and without the fertilizer, in 11 out of the 15 experi- 

 ments. 



" Nine of the 11 soils which were benefited by liming produced by the basket 

 method larger crops when lime alone was used than when the complete fertilizer 

 was added without lime ; in some cases the fertilizer gave no increase at all 

 until the soil had been limed. This does not show, of course, that it is more 

 economical to add lime than fertilizer; for the best crops were as a rule 

 obtained when the two were combined. 



" The practice of adding ordinary commercial fertilizers only to soils pri- 

 marily in need of liming is of doubtful economy. 



" Soil tests which are conducted upon land to which lime has been added just 

 before planting may give very different results from those which would be 

 obtained after the lime had exerted its full action upon the soil. 



" In the case of soils with which the effect of lime in liberating plant-food 

 ingredients is marked, the details of its application may be of such importance 

 as to change the relative deficiencies of potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen 

 as shown in the following paragraph. 



" Three soils which exhibited a lack of potassium primarily, by the first 

 trials in the baskets, showed by subsequent trials, with new portions of the 

 same soils, that potassium was no longer the element which was principally 

 deficient. The same amounts of lime, potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen 

 were added ; the difference in the two trials being in the temperature at which 

 the soil and the added materials were allowed to remain before planting. 



" The gain, by the basket method, from the addition of muriate of potash 

 was greater when the green weights, rather than the amount of transpired 

 water, were taken as a criterion. The acid phosphate and the nitrogenous 

 manures did not exhibit the same tendency. 



" The element which was shown by the basket method to be the most defi- 

 cient one in the case of a given soil was usually found prominently, if not prin- 

 cipally, deficient by the field test. There were, however, in many instances 

 subordinate though quite marked deficiencies in the field which were not indi- 

 cated with certainty during the short period of growth of the wheat in the 

 baskets." 



Soil biology in its relation to fertilization, J. L. Hills and C. H. Jones 

 {Vermont Sta. Bui. 130, pp. 213-290). — This article attempts to present in "as 

 readable and popular a manner as possible without the sacrifice of essential 

 accuracy of statement . . . what is conceived to be the present understanding 

 of soil biology as it relates to fertilization and particularly to the soil nitrogen 

 content." 



The article treats of the nature and classification of micro-organisms in gen- 

 eral, the propagation and environment of bacteria, soil bacteria affecting min- 

 eral ingredients and soil bacteria affecting organic ingredients, the nitrogen 

 cycle, nonbacterial nitrogen losses, and the balance of nitrogen gains and 

 losses. 



It also contains a glossary of technical terms used and a partial list of 

 publications consulted in the preparation of the article. 



The feeding of plants by the free living nitrogen-fixing bacteria of the 

 soil, A. Koch (Mitt. Deut. Laudn: OeselL, 22 (1907), Xo. 12. pp. 117-121. fi(js. 

 2). — This article summarizes briefly the results of a continuation of investiga- 

 tions on this subject (E. S. R., IS, p. IG), discussing the results moi"e particu- 

 larly in their practical bearings. 



