32 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



depth of the soil is taken into consideration. These soils in good seasons, with 

 careful treatment, produce fair yields of wheat, corn, and grass, and the cultivation 

 of peaches and other fruits is profitably carried on. 



" (5) The Trenton limestone gives rise to the finest type of heavy clay soils, which 

 consist of the insoluble residue after the lime carbonate has been removed in solu- 

 tion by the percolating rains. These soils, on account of the favorable conditions 

 they maintain for the growing crops, are well suited to general agricultural pur- 

 poses. They may, since their texture and relation to the various crops vary so 

 materially, be classified into corn, wheat, and grass lands. 



"(6) The corn lands in the limestone area are the lightest in texture and on 

 account of their loose, mellow condition are especially adapted to the cultivation 

 of corn. Too loose and sandy for the heaviest yields of wheat, they do not retain 

 sufficient moisture for a heavy growth of grass, although both of these crops are 

 raised. 



" (7) The wheat lands present a type of soil which has a heavier top soil, while the 

 stiff' clay is not so far from the surface as it is in the corn lands. The soils are well 

 drained and contain a considerable; amount of fragments of disintegrated rock. 

 They produce the finest quality of bright, heavy wheat, and a little more grass 

 than the light, loamy corn soils, but the production of corn is much less. 



"(8) The grass lands occupy the lower levels where the finest soil particles have 

 accumulated which have been washed down from the surrounding slopes. These 

 soils are stiff, heavy clay, which always retain sufficient moisture for a heavy 

 growth of grass. They are too stiff' for corn, and wheat is apt to run to straw, 

 besides there is a tendency to disease on such moist lands."' 



The determination of free humus acids in moor soils, B. Tacke 

 (Chcm. Ztg.,21 (1897 , Wo.20,pp. 174, 17 5, Jigs. /).— The acid reaction of 

 certain moor soils is attributable mainly to their humus acids or acid 

 humates. The proposed method is based on the fact that these acid 

 substances decompose neutral carbonates with the evolution of carbon 

 dioxid. As the oxygen of the air tends to decompose these substances, 

 forming carbon dioxid, the ordinary atmosphere must be replaced by 

 one of hydrogen or some other inert substance during the course of the 

 experiment. The apparatus used by the author consists essentially of 

 a hydrogen generator with wash bottles, a decomposition flask, and an 

 absorption tube. The soil made into a paste with 100 to 200 cc. of 

 water, is put into the decomposition flask, which is then connected with 

 the empty absorption tube on the one hand and with the hydrogen gen- 

 erator on the other, and a current of hydrogen passed through for an 

 hour to expel both oxygen and carbon dioxid from the apparatus. 

 Then without interrupting the How of hydrogen, 100 cc. of a fifth or 

 tenth normal solution of sodium hydroxid is introduced into the 

 absorption tube, and an excess of calcium carbonate in the condition 

 of paste, into the flask with the soil. The current of hydrogen is 

 allowed to pass for three hours, when the contents of the absorption 

 tubes are washed into a suitable vessel and its alkalinity determined 

 by Winkler's method, by adding barium chlorid and then titrating with 

 fifth or tenth normal hydrochloric acid, using phenolthalein as an 

 indicator. The amount of carbon dioxid liberated by the acids of the 

 soil is thus determined. — J, t. Anderson. 



