622 EXPERIMEN'T STATION RECOED. [Vol. S7 



"The county is thoroughly dissected by streams, and there are no large up- 

 land areas without natural drainage outlets. While there are many flat areas 

 and depressions, in both the uplands and bottoms, which are naturally poorly 

 drained, there is a much larger area from which the water flows off so rapidly 

 as to cause severe erosion." 



The soils of the county are of residual, sedimentary, and alluvial origin. 

 Twenty-eight soil types of 13 series are mapped, of which the Georgeville sUt 

 loam and the Cecil gravelly loam cover 11.2 and 10.5 per cent of the area, 

 respectively. 



Analyses of soils of the Belgian Kongo by the physiological method, F. 

 Smeyees {Bui. Agr. Congo Beige, 7 (1916), No. S-4, pp. 268-28^, figs. IS).— 

 Pot experiments are reported with oats, white mustard, and barley to determine 

 the fertility requirements of seven typical soils of the lower Belgian Kongo, 

 including black, dry, and tenacious lowland soil, fine-grained sandy soil, cal- 

 careous prairie soil, alluvial clay soil, brown clay forest soil, upland soil with 

 lateritic subsoil, and upland sandy soil. The surface soils were tested to a depth 

 of about 30 cm. (11.81 in.). Fertilizer treatment consisted of complete fertiliza- 

 tion and of complete fertilization without nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash, and 

 lime, respectively. 



The results Indicate that the soils of the lower Kongo are generally deficient 

 in nitrogen, this being the limiting factor. The addition of the other fertilizing 

 elements without nitrogen had no appreciable effect on the vegetation. The 

 fine-grained sandy soil and the upland sandy soil were the only soils tested show- 

 ing a notable deficiency in phosphoric acid, while the upland sandy and brown 

 clay forest soils were the only soils not somewhat deficient in potash. The fine- 

 grained sandy soil was the only soil seriously deficient in lime. 



The wheat soils of Alexandria division. Cape Province, C. F. Jubitz [So. 

 African Jour. Sci., IS (1917), No. 6, pp. 2ii-257).— Mechanical and chemical 

 analyses of 10 cultivated and 10 virgin soils are reported and compared with 

 similar analyses of wheat soils in the United States and England. Deterioration 

 was observed for some years in the crops from these soils, especially wheat. 



"Mechanical analysis showed the soils to range in physical character from 

 medium sands to fine sandy loams, the proportions of very fine sand. silt, and 

 clay together varying between 16 and 63 per cent, while pebbles, gravel, and 

 coarse sand were practically absent. . . . The causes of inadequate production, 

 tli'Tefore, seem to be (1) the rather sandy character of some of the soils, con- 

 joined with their inherent poverty in plant-food constituents; (2) the removal 

 of some of those constituents by continuous cropping without manure; and (3) 

 the further losses caused by the surface soil suffering depletion in respect of 

 silt and clay. The moisture conditions of the soil have not been investigated. 

 Out of the 10 localities investigated only one is not in immediate need of manur- 

 ing of any kind, in order to fit it for wheat production. Eight require manuring 

 with nitrogen, five need potash fertilizers, and six need fertilizing with phos- 

 phates." 



Some soils of the southern island of New Zealand with special reference 

 to their lime requirements, L. J. Wh-d (Jour. Agr. Sci. [England], 8 (1917), 

 No. 2, pp. 154-177, figs. 2). — Studies of the lime requirements of certain New 

 Zealand soils, including so-called shingly inland soils, deep loams underlain by 

 deep clay, and alluvial soils resting on gravel and in river beds, using the 

 Hutchinson-MacLennan method (E. S. R., 33. p. 622), are reported. 



It was found that " the Hutchinson-MacLennan method for determining the 

 lime requirements of soils, when practiced under suitable standard conditions, 

 gives more reliable indications than are obtainable by the ordinary methods of 

 chemical analysis. The method gives Indications which appear to be uniformly 



