932 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



under the crop as a means of improving the soils, and on the station farm to test the 

 relative effectiveness of potash (sulphate), barnyard manure, and dried blood. The 

 working of the preceding crops of oats and alfalfa into the soil had a i^ronounced 

 effect in increasing the yield of corn. "The poorer soil is affected much more than 

 the better soil, and the cylinders which had grown oats are affected much more than 

 those which had grown alfalfa. 



"These differences can not l)e due to lack of available nitrogen in the soil, since 

 determinations of the nitrates in all of the cylinders made a few days before the 

 crop was removed showed several times the amount which has been found in the 

 soil on which heavy crops of corn were growing in the field. The indications are 

 that one or more of the mineral elements were jiresent in but limited amounts." 



When the data obtained in the experiments with the fertilizers are expressed as 

 per cent of increase due to each fertilizer, the results stand as follows: "On the north 

 field, potassium sulphate, 34.4 per cent; dried blood, 20.1 per cent; manure, 29.2 per 

 cent. On the south field, muriate of potash, 0.0 per cent; dried blood, 5.3 per cent; 

 manure, 16.7 per cent." 



Some geobotanic experiments, Y. X.\bokikh {Sels/c. KJioz. i Lyesor., 198 {1900), 

 Sept., pp. 679-690). — This article records observations since 1895 on the growth of a 

 variety of plants, including corn, oats, potatoes, alfalfa, Lnthyrus satira. Madia ele- 

 gaiis, Carduus marianus, Atriple.v hortensi-s;, Dracocephahim moldavica. Datura ferox, 

 and Calendida stellata, on different kinds of soil, including gray sandy soil, alluvial 

 clayey soil, alluvial sand, chernozem, loess clayey soil, pebbly clay soil, and marly 

 soil, which had been filled in pits 1 meter deep and 6.4 meters square, in 1881. Par- 

 tial chemical and physical analyses of the soils are given, and the behavior of differ- 

 ent plants on the same soil and of the same plant on different soils are recorded and 

 discussed, as well as observations on the growth of weeds and the survival of the 

 plants on the different soils. The author especially discusses at some length the phase 

 of the appearance of the first flower. He does not agree with the opinion shared by 

 most horticulturists and agriculturists that as a rule on soils w^hich are dry and 

 poor in nutritive substances the flowering is hastened. Unfavorable soil conditions 

 which retard the vegetative development may also retard the phase of flowering; such 

 phenomena the author actually observed in the course of his 3 years' experience. 

 The physiological peculiarities of different s^iecies also play a great part in the con- 

 ditions of the phase of flowering. The other phases of the development of plants — 

 the ripening of the fruit and the drying up of the above-ground organs — are subject 

 to specific deviations from the normal as similar to those observed in the case of the 

 flowering. — p. firem.ax. 



FERTILIZERS. 



The fertilizing value of the nitrogen of stable manure and its analytical 

 determination, T. Pfeiffer, O. Lemmerm.\nn, R. Riecke, and C. Bloch {^fiit. 

 Landw. Inst, f/i/r. Breslau, 1 {1901), Xo. 5, pp. 189-219). — This is a continuation 

 of previous investigations (E. S. R., 11, p. 134; 12, p. 734), and included pot and 

 field experiments with 12 different kinds of manure from cattle, horses, sheep, and 

 dogs. The experiments were made on heavy and light soils, the main object being 

 to find an analytical method for determining the value of the nitrogen of manure. 

 This was not attained with complete success, but there appeared to be a certain 

 relation between the effectiveness of the nitrogen and its solubility in pepsin solution ' 

 after decomposition of the manure, although, as the table below shows, the results 

 were not concordant or conclusive. The solubilitj' in the pepsin solution was deter- 

 mined in the fresh manure and in the same manure after it had been kept in a 



iSeeLandw. Vers. Stat., 55 (1901), p. 129. 



