1917] SOILS — FERTILIZERS. 421 



loam, and the Sarpy very fine sandy loam cover 52, 14.3, and 10.4 per cent of 

 the area, respectively. 



Soil survey of Dickey County, North Dakota, T. M. Bushneli. et al. 

 ( U. S. Dept. Agr., Advance Sheets Field Operations Bur. Soils, 1914, PP- 56, pis. 

 2, fig. 1, map 1). — This survey, made in cooperation with the North Dakota 

 Experiment Station and issued November 24, 1916, deals with the soils of an 

 urea of 730,880 acres in southern North Dakota which physiographically com- 

 prises " (1) an old, sandy lake bed; (2) level, treeless prairie; and (3) a high, 

 rolling plain. ... On the plateau and in the Lake Dakota basin i-egional 

 drainage has not been established. The remainder of the county is imperfectly 

 drained." 



The soils of the county are derived from glacial drift. Including rougli 

 broken land, 28 soil types of 10 series are mapped, of which the Barnes loam 

 and silt loam cover 31.5 and 18.8 per cent of the area, respectively. " The 

 Barnes series predominates east of the Missouri Plateau, and comprises much 

 of the best farming land in the county." 



The loess soils of the Nebraska portion of the transition region. — V, The 

 water-soluble constituents, F. W. Upson, J. W. Calvin, and G. H. Brother 

 (Soil Set.. 2 (1916), No. If, pp. 377-386, fig. 1).—An investigation conducted at 

 the Nebraska Experiment Station on the water-soluble material in soils dealt 

 ■.vith in previous papers by Alway et al. (E. S. R., 35, pp. 809, 810) is reported. 



It was found that " in general the wator-soluble material in the loess soils of 

 the Nebraska portion of the transition region is low. The average total water- 

 soluble material is quite uniformly distributed as to area, the inorganic material 

 increases with the aridity, whereas the volatile material decreases with increas- 

 ing aridity. The water-soluble bicarbonates decrease from west to east and 

 follow the total carbonates in this respect. The water-soluble chlorids and sul- 

 phates as well as calcium and magnesium are quite uniformly distributed and 

 follow the distribution of the total amounts of these constituents in these same 

 soils. The water-soluble potassium is highest in the western areas and lowest 

 in the eastern areas. In the extreme eastern area it decreases from the surface 

 downward, whereas in the western area the reverse is true. In this respect it 

 follows the citric-acid-solHble potash and not the total potash, which is quite 

 uniformly distributed. The water-soluble phosphates show no very regular 

 distribution." 



Factors affecting: the evaporation of moisture from the soil, F. S. Harris 

 and J. S. Robinson (U. S. Dept. Agr., Jour. Agr. Research, 7 (1916), No. 10, pp. 

 439-461, figs. 17). — The studies reported in this article were made at the Utah 

 Experiment Station with loam, sand, clay, and muck, mostly in small tin plates 

 and copper vessels 8 in. in diameter and 4 in. deep, but also in Petri dishes, 

 long galvanized iron tanks, and deep cylindrical galvanized cans. An attempt 

 was made to eliminate the factor of capillarity and to confine the study entirely 

 to evaporation and various factors affecting it, including the initial quantity of 

 soil moisture, humidity of the air, wind velocity, sunshine, temperature, size of 

 soil particles, mulches, compacting the soil, method of applying water, and the 

 presence of soluble salts. The experimental methods are described in detail. 



It was found that " evaporation of moisture increases with the initial quan- 

 tity in the soil. The increase is not so great with the higher percentages as 

 with the lower, and there seem to be a number of critical points where the rate 

 of loss changes rapidly. The rate of evaporation from a moist soil is very rap- 

 idly decreased as the humidity of the air is increased. Air currents greatly 

 increase evaporation; but after about a certain wind velocity is reached the 

 rate of evaporation is only slightly increased by Increasing the wind velocity. 



