SOILS FERTILIZEES. 27 



creased and on a sand soil the straw yield was decreased, although the lime 

 and potash contents of both grain and straw were not appreciably influenced. 

 No effect of the waste liquor lime mixture was observed with oats and summer 

 wheat on a mild loam soil. In field experiments the mixture had no bad effects 

 on beets on a loam soil and was, on the whole, more favorable to them than 

 burned lime. 



It is concluded from these experiments that while the chlorids of the waste 

 liquor lime mixture were injurious to plant growth in pot experiments, the 

 amounts present are so small as to have no bad effect in field experiments. It 

 is further concluded that waste liquor lime mixture of the composition first 

 noted may be profitably used where liming is needed, in case it may be obtained 

 at about half the cost of burned lime. 



A precautionary statement regarding the protection of the mixture against 

 rain is added. 



Potash and lime in agriculture and the arts, G. AV. Coggeshali, {Nat. Lime 

 Manfrs. Assoc. Bui. 6 {1915), pp. 16; abs. m Engin. Mag., 49 {1915), No. 4, p. 

 578). — ^This bulletin gives a general discussion of the value of fertilizers in 

 agriculture, dealing particularly with potash. 



A process for obtaining water-soluble potash salts from feldspathic rock, 

 which is thought to eliminate the disadvantages of other methods used, is 

 described. This process consists of powdering 100 parts of feldspar rocls with 

 20 parts of burned lime and sprinkling a solution of calcium chlorid upon a 

 moving layer of the powdered mixture. The calcium chlorid unites with the 

 lime to form balls or clumps and these are fed to a rotary kiln. The formation 

 of the clumps is said to produce an intimate mixture between the feldspar and 

 flux. " The clumps passing down the kiln are heated by the powdered coal 

 blast to a bright red in the same outward form in which they entered but with 

 the potash dissociated from the silica of the feldspar and united with the 

 chlorin of the calcium chlorid to form muriate of potash. The lumps fall hot 

 into water and the potash salt is leached out, producing a 10 per cent solution 

 of potassium chlorid. This solution is sprayed down through the hot waste 

 gases of the kiln, the water evaporated, and a hot concentrated solution 

 obtained. This solution is dried at this point or by passing through a rotary 

 drier using the hot gases from the rotary lime-burning kiln. The final product 

 is identical with the muriate of potash obtained from Germany." Other ac- 

 counts of this process have previously been noted (E. S. R., 27, p. 724 ; 29, p. 518 ; 

 32, p. 324). 



Experiments on the influence of potassium ferrocyanid on plant growth, 

 E. Haselhoff {Landw. Jahrb., Jft {1914), No. 3, pp. 338-344) .—Soil pot culture 

 experiments witli beans on loam and sand soils and water culture experiments 

 with beans are reported, the purpose of which was to determine the effect of 

 potassium ferrocyanid on plant growth. 



The soil culture experiments showed that potassium ferrocyanid had a bad 

 effect on the crop yield in loam, while only the straw yield was unfavorably 

 affected in the sand soil. The water culture experiments showed that the in- 

 jurious effect of potassium ferrocyanid toward plant growth began at a concen- 

 tration of from 0.1 to 0.5 gm. of potassium ferrocyanid to 1 liter of nutritive 

 solution and that at the higher concentration the injurious effect was very 

 marked. 



Sulphur and permanent soil fertility in Iowa, P. E. Brown and E. H. 

 Kellogg {Jour. Amer. Soc. Agron., 7 {1915), No. 3, pp. 97-108). — The authors 

 summarize the results of investigations made at the Wisconsin and Kentucky 

 experiment stations and report studies of typical Iowa soils with reference to 

 their sulphur content. 



