212 EXPEEIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol.35 



Effect of grinding on the lime requirement of soils, R. C. Cook (Soil ScL, 

 1 {1916), No. i. pp. 95-98).— Experiments conducted at Rutgers College on six 

 different soils are reported, the results of which are taken to indicate that 

 " soils should not be ground if used for determination of lime requirement by 

 the Veitch method. Grinding sandy soils of New Jersey increases their acidity 

 instead of decreasing it, according to the method employed." 



Albuminous bases formed from organic matter of soils by hydrolysis, 

 A. Shmuk {Zhur. Opytn. Agron., 16 {1915), No. 4, PP- 281-298; abs. in Chem. 

 Abs., 10 {1916), No. 2, p. 2//3).— By long enough boiling of soil or humic acid 

 wit-h 25 per cent sulphuric acid the author succeeded in isolating and identify- 

 ing two compounds which he classed as amino acids. Arginin and lysin were 

 found in compounds obtained from three different chernozem soils. 



[Soil moisture studies] {North Dakota Sta., Rpt. Dickinson Substa., 1913, 

 pp. 81-36, figs. 4). — Studies on four loam soil wheat plats (A) continuously 

 cropped, spring plowed, (B) continuously cropped, fall plowed, and (C and D) 

 alternately cropped and summer fallowed showed an increase in moisture in all 

 the plats between October and April and a decrease during the remainder of the 

 season. The spring-plowed plat showed considerably less moisture than the 

 fall-plowed plat. Plats C and D showed about the same amounts of water 

 available to the crop until the crop began to draw heavily on the available 

 water, after which tlie plat recently fallowed lost but little water, while the 

 upper 3 ft. of the other plat became as dry as plats continuously cropped. 

 In the lower 3 ft. of the fall-plowed plat and Plats C and D there was an in- 

 crease in the amount of growth water from the fall until the following spring. 

 In the spring-plowed plat there was a decrease. The water available to crops 

 was used most economically on the spring-plowed plats. 



Similar data for barley plats are also reported, but are apparently deemed 

 unsatisfactory. 



Soil gases, J. W. Leatheb {Mem. Dept. Agr. India, Chem. Ser., 4 {1915), 

 No. 3, pp. 81-134, figs. 4). — An apparatus for the abstraction of soil gases from 

 undisturbed soil samples and a method of estimation of the argon content 

 of the sou are described, and results of studies of Pusa and other Indian 

 soils are reported. The object was to obtain more definite information regard- 

 ing the gases present during the decomposition of green manure, the gases 

 of swamp rice soil, the assimilation of nitrogen by Papilionaceas, the gases 

 present near the roots of crops, and changes during nitrification. 



It was found that the volume of gas in soils determined by direct measure- 

 ment is approximately equal to that determined by indirect calculation. The 

 volume of condensed gas in Pusa soil was too small to be estimated accu- 

 rately and is thought to be not greater than 4 per cent of the gas present. 

 The volumes of gas were smaller in wet weather than when the soil was dry. 

 " The volume of displaced gas is not necessarily equal to the additional water, 

 and the experimental results also show that one volume of water does not 

 necessarily displace one volume of gas. At the same time the two approach 

 equality. 



" The whole of the gas is not displaced from a soil ; even during the wetteat 

 weather the proportionate volume of gas only falls to 15 or 20 per cent, or 

 about one-half the volume which is present during long periods of hot, dry 

 weather. 



" The soil gas of land which has been freshly treated with farm manure or 

 green manure naturally contains a high proportion of carbon dioxid and a 

 low proportion of oxygen, but it is evident from the information gained by 

 operating with closed vessels (containing abundance of air) that were it not 



