1056 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Soil temperatures {Colorado Sta. Rpt. 1902, pp. 200-204, 214-217). — This is a 

 tabulated record, prepared by R. E. Trimble, of weekly observations on soil temper- 

 atures at different depths in irrigated and iinirrigated soil. 



Investig-ation of Illinois soils, C. G. Hopkins {Illinois Sta. Circ. 64, pp. 26, 

 figs. 5). — A rej)ort of progress in the general and detailed soil surveys of Illinois 

 carried on under State api^ropriations. More detailed accounts are to lie published 

 later in bulletin form. 



The soil of the Bermuda Islands: Its origin and composition, A. E. Vereill 

 {Till' Jicniiwla Tslinids. Xeir Hariii, ('oiiti.: Author, 190:^, jyp. 7S-SJ). — In this article, 

 which is part of a comprehensive treatise on the Bermuda Islands, published first in 

 the Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, volume 11, it is 

 stated that ' ' with the exception of the black jaeat or muck of the swamps and marshes, 

 all of the soil of the islands has been produced as an insoluble residue, or impurity, 

 left after the solution of the limestones and shell-sands of the islands by rain water, 

 but it is usually mixed with more or less disintegrated limestone, and some organic 

 matter. . . . Where the decomposition has l)een complete, this soil is a reddish 

 clay, the color being due to an excess of iron oxid, but in most places the clay soil is 

 mixed with considerable shell-sand, or grains of iindecomposed rock. In many 

 places the latter forms the greater part of the bulk." The latter are the so-called 

 white soils composed largely of calcium carbonate. The historical record of crop 

 production in the islands as well as the analyses reported in this article show the soils 

 to be as a rule naturally very fertile. They have, however, been reduced by years 

 of exhaustive culture. According to the analyses reported the red soils, which are 

 the more important, contain lime, 3.6 to 10 per cent; potash, 0.11 to 0.17 per cent; 

 and phosphoric acid, 0.68 to 0.74 per cent. 



On the nature of the nitrogen compounds found at different depths in the 

 soil, (r. Andke {<ii)iq>t. Rem]. Arnil. Sci. J'aris, l;l'> {1902), No. 26, jip. 1S53-1355). — 

 The total and ammoniacal nitrogen obtained by boiling (for 15 hours) samples of 

 soil taken in April and October from the surface and from depths of 30 and 60 to 65 

 cm. in dilute hydrochloric acid (36 per cent) and potash solution (containing 20 times 

 as much potash as there was nitrogen in the sample of soil) are reported. In case 

 of the treatment with potash the ammonia was removed by means of a current of 

 hydrogen and collected in dilute acid. The results indicate that the insoluble nitrog- 

 enous compounds of the surface soil are largely transformed into soluble compounds 

 during the summer and are widely diffused through the deeper layers of the soil 

 during the winter, so that in the spring the lower laj'ers of the soil contain more 

 soluble nitrogen than the surface soil. At the end of summer, however, the distri- 

 bution is quite uniform in the different layers. 



The analysis of reh, the alkaline salts in Indian usar land, E. G. Hili, 

 {Proc. Cliein. 8oc. {London'], 19 {1903), No. 262, pp. 58-61; abs. in Chem. Centbl., 1903, 

 I, No. 17, p. 987). — The upland usar or alkali lands of India, covering an area of 

 about 2,000,000 acres, mainly between the Jamna and Ganges and also between the 

 Ganges and Gogra, are described, and the attempts to utilize them are referred to. 

 Analyses of 5 samples of the soluble salts or reh are reported and their possible 

 utilization on a large scale is discussed. None of the samples examined contained 

 less than 88 \>vv cent of sodium carbonate. 



Investigations on the influence of the volume of soil on the yield and 

 composition of plants, O. Lemmermann {Jour. Landw., 51 {1903), No. 1, pp. 1-40). — 

 The yield and composition of mustard grown on mixtures of sand and ordmary soil 

 under different systems of manuring in series of pots containing 30, 225, and 15 kg. 

 of soil are reported and discussed. The results show that both the yield and com- 

 position were affected by the size of the pot, the fertilizer apparently being more 

 thoroughly utilized and the yield being larger in the larger pots. 



Nitrification in different soils, W. A. Withers and G. S. Fraps {North Carolina 



