1024 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



supply were more marked in the case of the straw than in the case of 

 the grain. 



The ash content of the grain varied with the amount of water in the 

 soil, increasing rapidly up to the point of medium water supply, but 

 more slowly beyond that point. The fertilizing which gave the lowest 

 yield of grain produced grain with the highest percentage of ash. The 

 variations in the ash content of the straw due to the amount of water 

 did not in all cases run parallel with those in the grain, but the varia- 

 tions due to fertilizing were of the same character in the straw and in 

 the grain. 



The potash content of the grain iucreased with the water content, 

 rapidly at first, but more slowly with the larger amounts of water. 

 The potash content of the grain increased with the amount of potash 

 applied in fertilizer, as well as with the amount of water in the soil. 

 The phosphoric acid content of both grain and straw was influenced to 

 a much less extent than potash. However, the phosphorie acid con- 

 tent of the grain, as a rule, increased with the amount of water in the 

 soil, the only exception being the cases in which combinations of phos- 

 phoric acid with nitrogen and phosphoric acid with potash were applied. 

 The phosphoric acid content of the straw also increased, as a rule, with 

 the water content of the soil, the only exception in this case being the 

 crops to which potash, nitrogen, and double doses of phosphoric acid 

 (2 gins, per pot) and potash and phosphoric acid with double doses of 

 nitrogen (1 gm. per pot) were applied. The fertilizing influenced the 

 potash content of the straw in the same manner as that of the grain, 

 the potash content being especially large in the crops grown without 

 fertilizers and with potash and nitrogen. The fertilizing exerted but 

 little influence upon the phosphoric acid content of the grain, the in- 

 crease being noted only when one of the other fertilizing constituents 

 was lacking and the yield for that reason was small. 



The forms of phosphoric acid in moor soils, G. Xannes {Jour. 

 Landiv., 47 (1899), No. 1, pp. 45-48). — The ether-alcohol, hydrochloric 

 acid (2 per cent), and ammonia (10 per cent) extracts of moor soils 

 were studied. The ether-alcohol extract contained very little phos- 

 phoric acid, indicating the presence of only insignificant amounts of 

 lecithin in the soil. More than half of the phosphoric acid present 

 was insoluble in hydrochloric acid and ammonia (0.2 per cent out of a 

 total of 0.38). Of the phosphoric acid extracted, 0.05 per cent was free 

 and 0.13 per cent was combined with humus. 



Attempts were also made to prepare and study the calcium, barium, 

 cadmium, and lead compounds of humus, but without very definite 

 results. 



On the direct transformation of ammonia into nitric acid in 

 liquid media, E. Demotjssy (Compt. Bend. Acad. Sci. Paris, 128 (1899), 

 No. 9, pp. 566-569; Ann. Agron., 25 (1899), No. 3, pp. 97-111).— -The 

 author calls attention to the fact that while it is recognized that both 

 nitrous and nitric ferments are involved in the transformation of 



