WATER SOILS. 569 



Investigations on the Tvater capacity of the soil, K. T^Liiicn 



{Forscli, Gel). a(j)\ Phys.^ 19 {1S9<;), No. ]-'2, pp. :'}7-r,G). — Mineral soils — 

 kaolin, clay, calcareous sand, and quartz sand; humus soils — liunuis 

 calcareous sand, hotbed soil, and Russian black soil; and different 

 kinds of humus — sugar humus and peat, were placed eitlier in glass 

 beakers, with ground ends and covers, 5.5 cm. in diameter and 8.8 cm. 

 high, or in zim; cylinders (also with covers) 12 cm. in diameter and 

 7 cm. high, and saturated with water. The beakers and cylinders were 

 kept at the desired temperature in a closed zinc box on a water bath, 

 or surrounded by a water coil, for 24 hours, and weighed. The bot- 

 toms of the cylinders were then allowed to dip into water while they 

 were kept at the desired temperature for another 24 hours. They were 

 weighed after the excess of water had dripped away, and this treat- 

 ment was repeated for successive 24-hour periods until the weight was 

 constant. With the mineral soils the higher the temperature the 

 smaller the amount of water retained. The reverse was true with the 

 humus and humus soils. 



In a similar manner the influence of sodium and potassium hydrates 

 and sodium, potassium, and ammonium carbonates; monosodium, 

 monopotassium, monocalcium, monomagnesium, and diammonium phos- 

 phates; sodium, potassium, ammonium, magnesium, and iron sulphates; 

 sodium, potassium, ammonium, calcium, and magnesium nitrates and 

 chlorids; and calcium hydrate and sulphate in amounts of 0.025, 0.05, 

 0.075, and 0.1 gm. upon the water capacity of kaolin was determined. 



The results show that (1) the hydrates, carbonates, and phosphates 

 lowered the water capacity; (2) the sulphates exerted practically no 

 influence; and (3) the nitrates and chlorids and calcium hydrate 

 increased the water capacity. The influence of the first and last 

 classes of compounds increased with the amounts present. 



A contribution to the study of nitrification, Marcille {Ann. 

 Agron., 22 {1896), No. 7, pp. 337-3 U). — In comparative tests it was found 

 that while the nitrogen of ammonium jihosphate was not so readily 

 transformed into nitrous acid as that of ammonium sulphate, the phos- 

 phate appeared to furnish a much more favorable medium for the 

 transformation of nitrites into nitrates than the sulphate. 



It was also found in comparative tests that nitrification was much 

 more rapid in a soil from Guadeloupe than in one from Eure-et-Loir. 

 Since no increase in nitrification was noted when the latter soil was 

 inoculated with organisms from the former the author concludes that 

 the difference was not due to the greater energy of the organisms of the 

 Guadeloupe soil but to differences in physical and chemical properties 

 of the soils, especially to the nature of the organic matter present. 



Nitrification, E. Godlewski {Anzeuj. Akad. Wissensch. Krakau, 

 1895, pp. 178-192; aba. in Ann. Agron., 22 {1896), pp. 303, 304; Jour. 

 Chem. 8oc., 1896, Dec, II-) P- 66S). — Previous experiments by the author 

 had indicated, contrary to the observations of Winogradsky, that the 



