320 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol.35 



Soil survey of Ramsey County, Minnesota, W. G. Smith and N. M. Kibk 

 (U. S. Dept. Agr., Advance Sheets Field Operations Bur. Soils, 1914, pp. 37, 

 figs. 2, map 1). — This survey, issued May 17, 1916, deals with the soils of an 

 area of 103,040 acres in east-central Minnesota, the surface of which is hilly 

 with intervening areas of level to rolling lands. Drainage is incompletely estab- 

 lished over a large part of the county. 



The soils are directly or indirectly of glacial origin and are predominantly 

 loams. Including marsh and rock outcrop, 18 soil types of 10 series are mapped, 

 of which the Gloucester loam, Merrimac loamy fine sand, Miami loam, Merrimac 

 loam, and marsh cover, respectively, 16.1, 13.7, 11.3, 11.2, and 10.6 per cent of 

 the area. 



Report on the soils of Fiji, I, C. H. Wright {Dept. Agr. Fiji Bui. 9 {1916), 

 pp. 22). — Analyses of tsvo samples of banana soil from Nasinu, three samples of 

 coconut soil from Laucala, two samples of red and two samples of black " soap- 

 stone " soil from Suva, four samples of alluvial soil from Navua, and one sample 

 of banana soil from Galoa and one sample of swamp soil from Qaraniqio are 

 reported, together with appendixes giving instructions for taking official and 

 private samples of soil for analysis and instructions for mechanical analysis. 



Some Johore soils, J. Geantham {Agr. Bui. Fed. Malay States, 4 {1916), No. 

 4, pp. 114-121). — Mechanical and chemical analyses of five samples of rubber 

 soils from Johore Bharu, 11 samples of rubber and three samples of coconut 

 soils from Muar, and seven samples of rubber soils from Batu Auam, in Johore, 

 Federated Malay States, are reported. 



Studies on nitrogen fixation and Azotobacter forms in soils of foreign 

 countries, C. B. Lipman and P. S. Bukgess {Centhl. Bakt. [etc.], 2. AM., 44 

 {1915), No. 17-23, pp. 481-511, pi. 1). — Studies of the nonsymbiotic nitrogen- 

 fixing flora, especially those of the Azotobacter group, and of the nitrogen- 

 fixing powers of the mixed soil flora of 46 soils from Egypt, India, Japan, 

 China, Syria, the Hawaiian Islands, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Spain, Italy, Russia, 

 Mexico, Asia INIinor, Canada, Unalaska, Samoa, Australia, Tahiti, Belgium, 

 Queensland, and the Galapagos Islands are reported. 



The plan of experiment " consisted in studying the appearance of the cultures 

 obtained from soil inoculation into [Lipman's mannite solution], making a mi- 

 croscopic study of the mixed flora, isolating pure cultures from the mixed flora 

 plated out on mannite agar, studying the morphology of these, and determining 

 the nitrogen-fixing powers in both solutions and soils of those forms which, 

 selected from the large number of pure cultures, were distinctly different from 

 one another." 



It was found in the mixed culture experiments that only about one-third of 

 the soils tested contained Azotobacter. "A fixation of 5 mg. of nitrogen per 

 gram of mannite or over occurred in only 20 out of 40 soils. In 16 of these 

 20 soils Azotobacter organisms were found. . . . Soils from the Mediterranean 

 region when compared with soils from all parts of the world manifest very 

 high nitrogen-fixing powers in mannite solution and bear a vigorous Azoto- 

 bacter flora. Many of the soils studied had been previously dried in stoppered 

 museum bottles for periods varying from 5 to 20 years, but still manifested 

 vigorous powers at nitrogen fixation. The latter was in many cases as high 

 as and in some much higher than that of many freshly collected soils known 

 to possess notable powers in that direction." 



Usually a high nitrogen content seemed to be unfavorable to vigorous nitrogen 

 fixation, although the highest nitrogen fixation of the 46 soils tested was ob- 

 tained with a soil containing about 0.3 per cent nitrogen. " It is more generally 

 true that high fixations of nitrogen are accomplished by soils in mannite solu- 

 tions only when Azotobacter organisms form a part of the same flora. . . . 



