SOILS — FERTILIZERS. 215 



flat uplands to productive bottom lands. The upland soils are broadly divided 

 into Piedmont and Coastal Plain soils and the alluvial soils into overflowed 

 stream bottoms and bench lands which are not subject to overflow. Twenty- 

 seven soil types, varying from a silty clay loam to a gravelly sandy loam are 

 mapped. " There are no two [types] which have exactly the same crop adapta- 

 tion, crop value, or fertilizer, lime, drainage, or tillage requirement." It is 

 stated that nearly all of the land in the county can be farmed and is, or has 

 been, under cultivation. 



" The majority of the soils are very productive, some of them representing 

 the strongest soil types of the Southeastern States. The lighter soils respond 

 very readily to good treatment and are excellent for early truck crops. The 

 ' slash lands ' represent the poorest soil in the county. These need thorough 

 drainage before they can be most profitably cropped." 



Systematic study of the soils of the Netherlands in the interest of agri- 

 culture, J. G. Maschhaupt (Cultura, 26 {WW, No. 311, pp. 235-240} .—The 

 author suggests the reorganization of the soil studies at the agricultural ex- 

 periment stations in the Netherlands on a more systematic basis, taking account 

 of the various geological, physical, chemical, and agronomic factors. 



The scouring lands of Somerset and Warwickshire, C. T. Gimingham (Jour. 

 Agr. Sci. [England], 6 (191-',), No. 3, pp. 328-3^6) .—Further studies of the 

 so-called "teart" lands (E. S. R., 28, p. 216) which cause scouring in cattle at 

 certain times of the year led to the conclusion " that scouring is due to the 

 physiological action of some constituent or constituents of the herbage which 

 are not normally present but only occur under special soil (and weather) 

 conditions; and further that the soil conditions are determined by the texture 

 and can be removed when the texture is appropriately changed." 



Soil culture primer, H. W. Campbell, revised and edited by R. A. Haste 

 {Lincoln, Nchr., 1914, 4- ed., rev., pp. 108, figs. 24). — This is the fourth revised 

 edition of this manual dealing especially with the author's method of soil 

 culture for semiarid regions. It presents in a brief elementary way what is 

 treated in detail in the author's larger manual on the subject (E. S. R., 19, 

 p. 42S). 



A nitrogenous soil constituent: Tetracarbonimid, E. C. Shoeey and E. H. 

 Walters (U. S. Dept. Agr., Joiir. Agr. Research, 3 {1914), No. 2, pp. 175-178).— 

 The isolation from soils and identification of tetracarbonimid (C^HiNiOi) are 

 described. The substance was isolated from a number of different kinds of 

 soils from various localities indicating that it " is not an uncommon or acci- 

 dental soil constituent." 



In one case as much as 30 mg. of the substance was obtained from IS kg. of 

 soils notwithstanding a loss in purification of at least 50 per cent. It is esti- 

 mated that an acre-foot of the soil contained approximately 7 lbs. of tetra- 

 carbonimid representing 2.3 lbs. of soil nitrogen. "This soil had a total nitro- 

 gen content of 0.13 per cent, or approximately 5,200 lbs. of nitrogen per acre- 

 foot, and it appears that the quantity of tetracarbonimid nitrogen is at any one 

 time but a very small part of the total." However, some evidence was obtained 

 in the investigation " indicating that the quantity of tetracarbonimid fluctuates 

 under varying conditions of cultivation or crop growth," and may under certain 

 conditions represent " an important step in the transformations that organic 

 nitrogen undergoes in the soil." 



Recent investigations of soil concretions due to manganese or lime, M. 

 Helbig {Natiirw. Ztschr. Forst u. Landw., 12 {1914), No. 8, pp. 385-392). — 

 Nut-shaped inorganic concretions of about 3 cm. diameter were found at about 

 22 cm. depth in soil overlying a bed of diluvial sand. These contained on the 

 average 26.8 per cent manganese dioxid, 23.5 per cent ferric oxid, and 10.5 per 



