AGRICULTURAL BOTANY. 621 



fertilizers and fertilizing materials offered for sale in Connecticut durinjr 1015, 

 together with analyses of 103 samples of miscellaneous wastes and by-products, 

 including sheep manure, tobacco stems, muck, peat, leaf mold, ground lime- 

 stone, lime waste from an acetylene gas plant, wood and limekiln ashes, a 

 kelp fertilizer, garbage siftings, gelatin roller waste, glue factory refuse, chim- 

 ney soot, and ash from the layer of material underlying a peat and lignite bed. 



Commercial fertilizers, H. E. Cuktis et al. (Kentucky &ta. Bui. 189 {1914), 

 pp. 631-752). — This bulletin contains the results of actual and guarantiod 

 analyses and valuations of 1,193 samples of fertilizers and fertilizing materials 

 offered for sale in Kentucky during 1914. 



" The x'esults of these analyses show that in most cases the samples have 

 come fully up to the guaranty, or where there is a slight deficiency in one in- 

 gredient it has been made up by an excess in one or both of the other ingre- 

 dients. In a few instances the deficiency in one ingredient, while fully made 

 up by an excess of the other ingredients, is still too low to be considered 

 acceptable." 



The fertilizer inspection for 1915, B. E. Cukky and T. O. Smith (New 

 Hampshire Sta. Bui. 176 {1915), pp. 3-11). — This bulletin contains the results 

 of actual and guarantied analyses of 158 samples of fertilizers and fertilizing 

 materials offered for sale in New Hampshire in 1915. 



Report of analyses of samples of commercial fertilizers collected by the 

 commissioner of agriculture during' 1915 (A^eio Yo)'k State Sta. Bui. 1^10 

 {1915), pp. 475-550). — This bulletin contains the results of actual and guaran- 

 tied analyses of 868 samples of fertilizers and fertilizing materials collected 

 for inspection in New York during 1915. 



Analyses of commercial fertilizers, R. N. Brackett et al. {South Carolina 

 Sta. Bui. 181 {1915), pp. 58). — This bulletin contains the results of actual and 

 guarantied analyses and valuations of 1,229 samples of fertilizers and fertiliz- 

 ing materials offered for sale in South Carolina during 1914-15. Of these, 288 

 samples failed to meet the commercial value based on their guaranties. 



ArxEICULTUKAL BOTANY. 



The water relation between plant and soil, B. E. Livingston and L. A. 

 Hawkins {Carnegie Inst. V,'ashington Pub. 20Jf {1915), pp. 3-48, figs. 3). — The 

 authors give an account of a study of the relation between the diurnal march 

 of the transpiration rate and the corresponding march of the water-attracting 

 power of the soil in the case of potted plants. Three plants each of vetch, 

 broad bean, and coleus were grown in cylinders provided with automatic irri- 

 gators. Weighings and readings of the irrigators, atmometers, etc., were fre- 

 quently made, and the data tend to show some of the relations between the 

 water requirements of the plants and their surroundings. 



In the studies reported, the only immediate conditions markedly altering the 

 soil moisture content were those furnished by the plant itself. These condi- 

 tions acted through the actual rate of root absorption, which tends to dry the 

 soil layers adjacent to the absorbing surfaces. Aside from growth and other 

 water-consuming processes of the plants themselves, the actual rate of absorp- 

 tion by the roots was found to be controlled by the evaporation rate, which was 

 controlled in turn partly by internal conditions and partly by the evaporating 

 power of the aerial surroundings. The data here obtained bring out an impor- 

 tant feature of the daily march of the conditions considered, showing a high 

 region for the day and a low one for the night, although there is a shifting, by 

 a few hours backward and forward, of the time at which the various maxima 

 31501°— No. 6—16 3 



