448 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



section of the constitutiou is that which requires favorable action at 

 two consecutive annual meetings before any proposed method of analy- 

 sis becomes the officially recognized method of the association. In 

 qnostions concerning technical analysis only such decisions as are unan- 

 imously supported by the delegates present are binding. In j)urely 

 scientific questions no resolutions are binding. 



The present meeting of the association, which was the ninth, was held 

 September 18 and 19, 1890. The evening ijrevious to the meeting the 

 delegates, to the number of about 30, met informally in the dining room 

 of one of the hotels, where, after being welcomed by the i)resident. 

 Professor Dr. ^N^obbe, director of the Experiment Station at Thaiand, 

 Saxony, they renewed acquaintance with one another for a few hours 

 in the genial and social way characteristic of German meetings. 



The following day the formal opening of the sessions took j)lace at 

 9.30 a. m. in one of the halls of the " Kurhaus." There were about 40 

 persons present, about 30 of whom were voting delegates. The elder 

 Fresenius was expected to lend his presence at the opening session, but 

 he was out of the city and unable to return in time. After a few 

 introductory remarks, the president gave a brief review of such of 

 the year's hapj>enings as were of interest to the members, and congratu- 

 lated the association on having hapjiily emerged from the " storm and 

 stress" period of its history. The treasurer then presented his report 

 on the financial transactions of the i)ast year. Officers were elected 

 and appointed to fill vacancies occurring during the year. Professor 

 Emmerling, of Kiel, was elected a member of the executive committee; 

 Professor Dietrich, of Marburg, was appointed on the committee on 

 soil analysis, and Br. Rodenwald, of Kiel, on the committee on seed 

 examination. 



Professor Maercker, of Halle, in behalf of the committee on ferti- 

 lizers, reported the results of investigations authorized at the meeting 

 held in Kiel the preceding year, which may be briefly summarized as 

 follows : 



(1) The results of cooperative determinations in 5 laboratories of pot- 

 ash in aqueous and hydrochloric acid solutions of carnallit, kainit, 

 sylvinit, and a mixture of kainit and polyhalit, show close agreement, 

 there being practically no difference between the amounts'found in the 

 water and acid solutions. The short method of Fresenius gave good 

 results, provided the potassium-platinic chlorid was dissolved on the 

 filter, evaporated to dryness, and weighed, or the impurities left on 

 the filter were weighed and deducted. The results of tests by the 

 Darmstadt station of alcohol of different strengths for washing the final 

 precipitate are rej)orted. 



(2) Tests by the Mockern^ and Hildesheim stations of the methods of 

 determining ammoniacal nitrogen in fertilizers by distillation with mag- 

 nesia and soda are reported, showing practically no difference in the 

 results by the 2 methods. 



1 Chem. Ztg., 20 (1896), No. 17, p. 151 (E. S. R., 7, p. 826). 



