810 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol. 37 



" These investigations sliow a marked amount of water-soluble salts or alkali 

 in the undistributed country rock with local accumulation wherever the move- 

 ment of the underground water has caused a local concentration by seepage 

 through the rock and deposition by evaporation. There is a marked variation 

 in the amount of salts occurring in the country rock in any given geological 

 series, but uniformly high results have been obtained at widely separate<l sec- 

 tions of the country, such as those found at Grand Junction, Colo. ; Emery and 

 Vernal, Utah; and Lyman, Wyo. There is a marked concentration of nitrates 

 and alkali in the ashlike and alkali deposits in the uncultivated areas." 



A tabulated summary of the average alkali material found in the country rock 

 " brings clearly to mind the fact that in a widely disseminated form there are 

 in the shales and sandstones of the Cretaceous and Tertiary of Utah, Colorado, 

 and Wyoming enormous deposits of soluble salts consisting of the sulphates, 

 chlorids, nitrates, and bicarbonates of calcium, magnesium, and sodium. In 

 certain local areas these salts become concentrated so as to produce native 

 alkali, or ' niter spots,' by the ?novenient of the underground water without the 

 instrumentality of the irrigation ditch. Wherever the shale is highly impreg- 

 nated with the salts the evaporation of the water deposits the alkali salts on 

 the surface in the form of an ashlike powder." 



A preliminary soil census of Alabama and west Florida, R. M. H.\rpeb 

 {Suil i<ci., Jf (lUn), No. 2, pp. 91-101, fig. J).— This census is based on all 

 the soil surveys of the Bureau of Soils of the U. S. Department of Agriculture 

 for Alabama and west Florida published up to the end of 1916. 



Soil survey of the Healdsburg area, Cal., E. B. Watson. W. C. Dean, C. J. 

 ZiNN, and K. L. Pendleton (U. S. Dcpt. Agr., Adv. Sheets Field Oper. Bur. 

 Soils, 1915, pp. 59, pis. 5, fig. 1, map 1). — This survey, made in cooi^eratlon 

 with the California Experiment Station, de;ils with the soils of an area of 

 222,720 acres in the central and northern parts of Sonoma County, in western 

 California. The area consist.s of relatively level valley lands and low hills 

 surrounded by higher hills which are maiidy nonarnble. 



" The soils of the Ilealdshurg area include those of residual origin, those 

 derived through weathering from old unconsolidated valley-filling deposits, and 

 tho.se of recent alluvial origin." Including rough mountainous land and river- 

 wash, 30 soil types of 15 series are mapped, of which rough mountainous land 

 covers 31.8 per cent, Goldridge fine sandy loam 12.8 per cent, and Madera loam 

 6.6 per cent of the area. 



Soil survey of Cumberland County, Me.. C. Van Duyne and M. W. Beck 

 {U. S. Dcpt. Ayr., Adv. Sheets Field Oper. Bur. Soils. 1915, pp. 92. figs. 2. map 

 1). — This survey deals with the soils of an area of r»4r>,920 acres in southern 

 Maine, the physiographic features of which are those of an uneven country with 

 little or no systematic arrangenient of its hills, valleys, and plains?. Only small 

 local areas are poorly drained. 



With reference to origin, the soils of the area are classed as "soils derived 

 from glacial till, from terrace deposits, from estuarine and glacial-lnke deposits, 

 from alluvial flood-plain deposif, from accumulations of organic matter, and 

 miscellaneous nonagricultural. In all, 10 series with 21 soil types, 4 phases, 

 and 4 miscellaneous typos have been mapped." Of these the Gloucester sandy 

 loam, Orono silt loam, Gloucester stony sandy loam, and the Merrimac sandy 

 loam cover 27.3, In.G. l.".r), and 11..'^ i>tr cent of the area. 



The formation and characteristics of Massachusetts peat lands and some 

 of their uses, A. P. Dachnowski {Trans. Mass. Hort. Soc., 1917, pt. 1, pp. 29- 



