26 EXPERIMENT STATION EECORD. [Vol.36 



" Protein-like substances, nonextractable by distilled water but extractable 

 by 1 per cent sodium hydroxid solution, were isolated from the soil after the 

 dried blood had decomposed for 240 days." 



A list of 60 references to literature bearing on the subject is appended. 



Potash salts, 1915, W. C. Phalen (U. S. Oeol. Survey, Mineral Resources of 

 the United States, 191S, pt. 2, pp. 95-133). — This bulletin gives a general review 

 of domestic conditions with reference to the production and sources of potash, 

 together with a brief description of processes involved in production, and simple 

 tests for potash by W. B. Hicks. 



It is stated that in 191.5 soluble potash salts were produced in this country 

 valued at $342,000. " By-product potash from cement manufacture has become 

 a reality at Riverside, Cal. Potassium sulphate from alunite was first placed 

 on the market late in October, 1915, at Marysvale, Utah. An important produc- 

 tion of potash salts is announced from Jesse Lake, near Hoffland, western 

 Nebraska. Some potash was marketed in the form of dried kelp, which, how- 

 ever, must be considered of organic rather than mineral origin. Without much 

 doubt, potash salts were produced in small quantity from feldspar or other 

 silicate rocks and incorporated Into mixed fertilizers without intermediate 

 refinement. . . . 



" Active operations are in progress in California at Searles Lake and at 

 Keeler, on the shore of Owens Lake, and the by-product bittern at the solar 

 evaporation plants on San Francisco Bay has also received some attention. In 

 Utah, near Great Salt Lake, as is reported, one company is erecting a plant and 

 another plant will soon be begun at the south end of the lake. An additional 

 plant is also planned for Marysvale for work on alunite. . . . 



"The imports of refined potash salts (all from Germany), which include the 

 80 per cent chlorid used in agriculture, were about one-fourth in 1915 what 

 they were in 1913, the last normal year, and the imports of kainit and manure 

 salts were about 3 per cent of those in 1913. All the imports of potash salts 

 taken together amounted in 1915 to about one-tenth of recent imports under 

 normal conditions." 



Attention is also drawn to what appear to be promising foreign potash 

 deposits in Spain and Chile. 



A bibliography of 5fi works bearing on the subject is appended. 



The oxidation of sulphur in soils as a means of increasing the availability 

 of mineral phosphates, J. G. Lipman, H. C. McLean, and H. C. Lint {Soil Sci., 

 i {1916), No. 6, pp. 533-^39). — Experiments conducted at the New .Jersey Ex- 

 periment Stations with pure sea sand, tenacious red silt loam, and medium 

 loam soil to determine the Influence of sulphur oxidation on the availability of 

 rock phosphate are reported. Five gm. of sulphur and 15 gni. of rock phosphate 

 were added to 100-gm. quantities of the soils. 



It was found that " elementary sulphur is rendily oxidized in soils containing 

 sulfofying bacteria and offering favorable conditions for the development of 

 these organisms. The oxidation of sulphur in soils may lead to the accumula- 

 tion of large quantities of sulphuric acid. The sulphuric acid formed in the 

 oxidation of sulphur by bacteria readily reacts with basic substances. Tricalcic 

 phosphate, when added to soils or soil mixtures in which sulfofication is 

 active, may react with the sulphuric acid formed, and may then furnish avail- 

 able phosphoric acid to crops. The facts recorded above justify the claim that 

 compost heaps in which sulfofication is active may be utilized for the produc- 

 tion of available phosphoric acid out of insoluble phosphates." 



The influence of liming on the productiveness of certain soils, F. T. Shutt 

 {Canada Expt. Farms Rpts. 1915, pp. 110-115). — Chemical analyses of acid soil 

 from Cap Rouge, Quebec, are reported, the results of which are taken to indicate 



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