418 EXPEEIMENT STATION RECORD. 



During the calendar year 1905, 21,289 sqiiare miles, or 13,624,960 acres, were 

 surveyed aud mapped on a scale of 1 in. to the mile, making the total area 

 surveyed and mapped up to the end of that year 110,087 square miles, or 

 70,455,680 acres. The average cost of the field work in 1905 was $2.66 per 

 square mile. 



A new feature of the soil surveys beginning with the year 1905 " consists of 

 the presentation of the results of tests made to determine the manurial re- 

 quirements of the more imporant types. In these cases large samitles of soils 

 were collected and sent to the Bureau for testing by the wire-basket method. 

 These large samples were subdivided and different kinds of fertilizing ma- 

 terials, including barnyard manure, chemical fertilizers, aud green crops, were 

 applied to various quantities and in different combinations. Upon the differ- 

 ent samples thus treated wheat plants were grown and their growth compared 

 with that of similar plants grown upon untreated check samples. The soil 

 survey reports give the results of these determinations. This testing of 

 manurial and fertilizer requirements will be continued on all the principal 

 types and classes of soils in the region where the use of fertilizers or manure 

 is connnon or is l)eing introduced. In this way the soil survey reports will 

 not only deal with the appropriate selection of characteristic soils for the pro- 

 duction of different farm crops, but will also indicate the proper proc-edure 

 whereby increased yields of the staple crops may be secured. These two prob- 

 lems, adaptation of soil to crop and the maintenance and increase of crop 

 yields, constitute the great agricultural problems of the country." 



Economic geology of the Independence quadrangle, Kansas, F. C. 

 ScriRADKR and E. IIaworth ( f. K. (leal. Siirrcii Hid. iUi;, />/j. I'l + M. jihs. G, 

 figs. 3). — This is a report of a study of this area of about 950 square miles in 

 southeastern Kansas, adjacent to Indian Territory, giving the results of observa- 

 tions on the geology and mineral resources, as well Its of incidental studies on 

 soils, agricultural conditions, water supply, etc. 



Agrogeological studies, P. Treitz (Jahreshcr. K. Ungar. Geol. Anst., 1905, 

 pp. 198-2^7). — A series of studies of soils, water, economic deposits, geological 

 relation, and agricultural condition of various areas of Hungary is reported. 



An analytical study of the cultivated soils derived from the schists of 

 Pont-de-Larn. Tarn, A. Delage, H. Laoatu, and I.. Sicarp (Aun. IJroJr Nat. 

 Agr. Montpellier, n. ser., 6 (1901), No. //, pp. 268-326; 7 (1907), No. 5, pp. J,7-65 ; 

 rev. in Bui. Soc. Nat. Agr. France, 67 (1907), No. 3, pp. 2.',8-259).— Thin paper 

 forms a part of a series of memoirs on the constitution and composition of 

 arable soils, already referred to (E. S. R., 17, p. 841). 



Two broad general conclusions arrived at from this work are stated as fol- 

 lows: (1) No observations have been made which warrant the belief that 

 epigenic processes go on in cultivated soils. All observations tend to show that 

 soils are the simple products of disaggregation of rocks. (2) All chemical 

 transformation (dissociation and recombination) to which soils are subject, 

 follow the solution of the mineral constituents in different solvents, but prin- 

 cipally in water, which takes place in very small but constant proportion and 

 without decomposition of the mineral constituents. The authors' results are 

 discussed in the light of similar work by Cameron and Bell (E. S. R., 17, ]>. 

 742), aud various practical applications of them in their bearing on cultivatitm, 

 fertilizing, etc., are explained. 



A study of the sabak of Upper Egypt, R. Roche (Bui. Assoc. Cliim. l^ucr. 

 ct Dixtni.. 2-'i (1907), No. 11, pp. 1533-1537). — Analyses of this material, which 

 is the saline debris obtained from sites of ancient villages, are rejiorted and its 

 origin, value, and methods of use are discussetl. The analyses reported show it 



