CONVENTION OF OFFICIAL AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTS. 325 



" potash,'" while others use " potassium," etc. As a result of discus- 

 sion upon this point, the following committee on the unification of 

 terms for reporting analytical result was appointed: R. J. Davidson, 

 chairman, C. G. Hopkins, W. D. Bigelow, G. S. Fraps, and C. A. 

 Browne, jr. 



G. S. Fraps read a paper on Nitrification and Soil Deficiencies, in 

 which he referred to nitrification as a means of determining- these defi- 

 ciencies, pointing out the relation of moisture, basicity, phosphoric 

 acid, potash, etc., to nitrification. He showed that the varying power 

 of soils to transform organic matter into nitrates under comparable 

 physical conditions was due in part to deficiency in available calcium 

 carbonate, potash, or phosphoric acid. Furthermore, "a deficiency in 

 phosphoric acid for nitrification is as a rule accompanied, in the cases 

 under observation, by a deficiency in phosphoric acid for corn and 

 cotton/ 1 He held that investigations into the causes of the variation 

 in nitrifying power of soils and the relation between soil deficiencies 

 as shown by nitrification and pot experiments have an important bear- 

 ing upon problems of soil chemistry and the maintenance of soil fertility. 



F. P. Veitch presented a Summary of Experiments on the Relation 

 of Soil Acidity to Fertility. The paper was based largely upon the 

 results of pot experiments made by the Bureau of Chemistry on soils 

 from different parts of the United States, and showed in general that 

 all of the principal factors of soil fertility are more active in alkaline 

 than in acid soils. The physical condition is better, there is less 

 disease, and plants make better use of all the elements of plant food, 

 except phosphoric acid, in alkaline soils. There was considerable 

 discussion of the rate of liming, the depth to which applications of 

 lime penetrate into the soil, the form of lime to be used, etc. 

 Mr. Veitcb/s paper stated that "in applying lime the soil should finally 

 be made alkaline to the full plowed depth," and that " in ordinary 

 farm practice the acids of the subsoil are not neutralized by the 

 applied lime." 



Recommendations. — It was recommended that the investigation of 

 methods for the determination of water-soluble plant food in soils be 

 continued; and that the methods for determining the easily soluble 

 plant food also be further investigated, using acid solutions of greater 

 strength than two-hundredth-normal, as previously recommended. 



DAIRY PRODUCTS. 



The report on this subject, by G. E. Patrick, referee, was read by 

 the secretary. It dealt mainly with the effect of preservative materials 

 on the albumin of milk, and the determination of sugar in condensed 

 milk. 



