1920] SOILS FERTILIZERS. 19 



hydrolysis to* almost the same extent regardless of the origin and nature of 

 the soil. 



" Some very interesting figures are found in the comparison of the different 

 extracts from sphagnum-covered peat. The portion soluble in sodium hydroxid 

 and not precipitated by hydrochloric acid gives a nitrogen distribution ap- 

 proximating very closely that of a normal plant protein. The nitrogen dis- 

 solving in the preliminary hydrochloric acid leaching shows a nitrogen dis- 

 tribution which is certainly not due exclusively to protein materials, e. g., an 

 ammonia nitrogen pei'centage of 65.4 and amino-nitrogen-in-filtrate-from-bases 

 of 17.11 per cent. When an attempt was made to isolate alcohol-soluble and 

 salt-soluble proteins from the soil, the amounts obtained were so small that it 

 seems safe to conclude that no appreciable quantities of these types of pro- 

 teins are present. The most significant fact brought out by this study is that 

 the organic nitrogen distribution in different soil types is very uniform." 



The washing out of nitrates by drainage water from uncropped and un- 

 manured land, E. J. Russell and E. H. Richakds (Jour. Agr. Set. [England], 

 10 {1920), No. 1, pp. 22-43, figs. 7).— This article supplements and brings up to 

 date a report by N. H. J. Miller, published in 1906, and also reviews all of the 

 results of the work since 1877, when systematic determinations of nitric nitro- 

 gen and chlorin in the drainage water of the Rothaiusted drain gauges were 

 begun. 



" Broadly speaking, the results show that uncropped land steadily and per- 

 sistently loses nitrogen in the form of nitrates. This, of course, was known. 

 The unexpected feature is the slowness with which the soil loses the power 

 of producing nitrates from its own stock of nitrogenous compounds. At the 

 beginning of the experiment the soil contained 0.146 per cent of nitrogen, 

 about 3,.500 lbs. per acre in the top 9 in. ; it yielded up about 40 lbs. of nitrogen 

 per acre per annum to the drainage water. At the end of nearly 50 years it 

 still contains 0.099 per cent of nitrogen, or 2,380 lbs. in the top 9 in., and it 

 still gives up to the drainage water 21 lbs. of nitric nitrogen per acre per 

 annum, enough to produce a 15-bu. crop of wheat, although neither manure nor 

 crop residues have been added during the whole of the period. If the curve 

 showing the rate of fall continued its present course and without further 

 slowing down, no less than 150 years would be needed for exhaustion of the 

 nitrogen. 



" So far. as can be ascertained, the nitrogen lost from the soil appears wholly 

 as nitrate in the drainage water. From the top 9 in. of the 20-in. and 60-in. 

 gauges the nitrogen lost has been, respectively, 1,124 and 1,172 lbs. per acre.- 

 The nitric nitrogen in the drainage water amounts to 1,247 and 1,200 lbs per acre 

 in the two gauges. These figures are arrived at by adding together the whole 

 of the nitrate found and such estimated amounts as are possible for the first 

 seven years before regular determinations were made, deducting nitrogen in- 

 troduced by the rain. The subsoil is left out of account, but evidence is ad- 

 duced to show that it contributes little if anything to the nitrate in the drain- 

 age water. Two items admittedly lack precision, being estimates only, but 

 they are based on reasonable grounds and are probably not far wrong." 



The nitrate in the drainage water showed a closer relationship to rainfall 

 than to any other single factor, and nearly as clear a relationship to the quantity 

 of water percolating through the gauges. It is found, however, that exceptionally 

 wet or dry years have after effects which persist in the following season. " Dm*- 

 ing an exceptionally wet year the soil not only loses a large amount of nitrate, 

 but apparently t(j some extent the power of producing nitrate. ... In some of 

 the very dry years the opposite effect is seen ; less nitrate is washed out than 



