1916] SOILS FERTILIZERS. 427 



It was foTincl that "rye and oat plants grown during late fall and early 

 winter did not make as large a growth as those grown after midwinter for the 

 same period under otherwise the same conditions, but the amount of nitrogen 

 removed in the tops of the plants was much the same in both experiments. 

 Although the rye plants did not make as large a growth as the oat plants, the 

 relative growth was much the same with those having like treatment. 



"Plants having their nitrogen added in the form of garbage tankage or 

 aluminum nitrid made no larger growth than those to which no nitrogen was 

 added. Nitrogen in water-extracted blood proved just as available to the oat 

 plant as that in the unwashed blood. Plants securing their water-insoluble 

 nitrogen in animal tankage made fully as large a growth as those receiving it 

 in blood. The water-insoluble nitrogen in castor pomace and rape meal proved 

 excellent sources of nitrogen for the growth of oat plants, while Kanona 

 tankage proved to be quite an inferior source of nitrogen. An application of 

 0.6 gm. nitrogen in cyanamid (165 lbs. of nitrogen per acre) proved toxic to the 

 young plants but they were able to overcome the toxicity and make a fair 

 growth. . . . 



"The nitrogen in soot had an availability of 56 compared with that in blood 

 at 80. Nitrogen in oxamid produced plant growth about equal to the average 

 produced by that in blood and in nitrate of soda. 



"Lower activities secured by modifications of the neutral permanganate 

 method in general agreed no better with the availabilities than those secured 

 by the unmodified method. Of the 56 fertilizers tested, not only by the oat 

 plant but also by the alkaline and neutral permanganate methods, 24 were 

 found to contain water-insoluble nitrogen having an availability of less than 

 45 as compared with blood nitrogen at 80. Of these, 13 were actually classed 

 as inferior by having an activity of less than 55 by the alkaline permanganate 

 method, and three more were practically so classed, theii* activities being only 

 one to two points higher. Two having availabilities of only 54 and 50 were 

 condemned by activities of 51 and 41. None was condemned by the alkaline 

 method which proved to have a high availability. The neutral method, on the 

 basis of activities of less than 80, detected 19 of the 24 inferior ones and three 

 more having availabilities of only 54, 50, and 49, but condemned three with the 

 satisfactory availabilities of 81, 74, and 68. . . . 



"About the same percentage of the inferior samples was detected by the two 

 methods, but the neutral method condemned some samples which proved to 

 have satisfactory availabilities according to the vegetation tests. The per- 

 centage of the insoluble nitrogen attacked by the potassium permanganate 

 solution agrees much closer with the relative availability by vegetation test, 

 in case of the alkaline than of the neutral method." 



Field experiments on the action of new forms of nitrogen, Schneidewind 

 {Mitt. Deut. Landw. Oesell., SI {1916), No. 2, pp. 16-20). — Field experiments 

 are reported with potatoes on dry sand soil ; with potatoes, beets, and rye on 

 damp sand soil ; and with sugar beets, oats, winter rye, and summer wheat on 

 humus loess loam soil to compare the fertilizing action of sodium, calcium, 

 ammonium, and urea nitrates ; ammonium chlorid and sulphate ; urea ; and 

 lime nitrogen when added in amounts equivalent to 0.3, 0.45, and 0.6 kg. of 

 nitrogen per 100 square meters. 



The results indicate that ammonium chlorid, ammonium nitrate, u»ea, and 

 urea nitrate were equal in fertilizing action to ammonium sulphate, and the 

 last three in some cases were equal to sodium nitrate. Ammonium nitrate, 

 however, has the disadvantage of being very hygroscopic and explosive. The 

 average fertilizing action of lime nitrogen was somewhat less than that of the 

 other fertilizers. The two types of calcium nitrate were equal in fertilizing 



