932 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



The natural potash, magnesia, and lime of moor soils are to some 

 extent soluble in water, but the larger part is insoluble. A considera- 

 ble amount of the potash applied in fertilizers to upland moor soil 

 passes into the drainage. The rest is quite firmly fixed in the soil. 

 The natural potash of lowland moor soils is somewhat more insoluble 

 than that of the upland moors. The absorptive power of the latter for 

 potash, however, is practically the same as that of the former. Only 

 after repeated applications of lime was the solubility of the soil potash 

 increased. Applications of potash increased the solubility of the soil 

 lime to a marked degree. Increased amounts of lime were not found 

 in the drainage water following the application of lime. 



Investigations on the phosphorus compounds of moor soils, B. 

 TACKE (Landw. Jahrb., 27 (1898), Sup. 4, pp. 303-348). — Twelve samples 

 of moor soil (burnt and not burnt) were treated in a variety of ways 

 with a number of different solvents (hydrochloric, nitric, acetic, oxalic, 

 and citric acids, carbonic acid water, ammonium oxalate and carbonate, 

 and water). Boiling for 8 hours with 5 per cent hydrochloric acid 

 dissolved all the phosphorus compounds present. The larger part of 

 the phosphorus compounds was also dissolved by 10 per cent ammonia 

 solution, especially when the soils had been previously treated with 0.5 

 per cent hydrochloric acid. The phosphorus compounds dissolved from 

 the soil by acids were found to be diffusible. Drying and heating 

 increased the solubility of the phosphorus compounds of the soils in 

 the above reagents. 



Pot experiments with some of the soils used in the above investiga- 

 tions showed that the phosphoric acids of soils which had been dried 

 or burnt was much more available to plants than that of soils not so 

 treated. 



The changes -which moor soils undergo under culture and 

 manuring, GL Schliebs and H. Minssen (Landw. Jahrb., 27 (1898), 

 Sup. 4, pp. 525-547). — The principal change noted was an increase of 

 potash and phosphoric acid (especially the latter) in the surface soil. 

 There was no increase of nitrogen where nitrate of soda was used, 

 although an increase was observed where less soluble forms of nitrogen 

 were applied. In general, the increase in the soil supply of a given 

 constituent under fertilization was greater the less abundant the appli- 

 cations of the other constituents. The increase in soil supply of potash 

 and phosphoric acid did not as a rule result in such an iucreased yield 

 as to render moderate applications of these constituents unnecessary. 

 This is explained by the insolubility of the potash and phosphoric acid 

 absorbed by the soil (see above). The continued use of potash salts 

 resulted in a decrease in the lime of the surface soil, but this was partly 

 or completely corrected by the lime in phosphatic substances, such as 

 Thomas slag, which had been used. 



Continued application of fertilizers resulted in an increase of potash 

 and phosphoric acid as well as lime in the lower layers of the soil. 



