S22 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol. 41 



Some notes on the cause of the unproductivity of " raw " subsoils in 

 humid regions, P. R. McMillee [Soil Sci., 7 {1919), No. S, pp. 233-2^36 ) .—Vege- 

 tation experiments conducted at the Minnesota Experiment Station with cer- 

 tain Minnesota prairie subsoils, previously found " raw " toward inoculated 

 legumes, showed that an application of soluble potash and phosphoric-acid fer- 

 tilizers removed this infertility, rendering the subsoils as productive as the 

 corresponding surface soils. This is considered evidence that rawness in these 

 soils is due to a lack of readily available mineral nutrients. 



The inhibition by stable manure of the injurious effects of alkali salts in 

 soils, C. B. LiPMAN and AV. F. Gericke {Soil Sci., 7 {1919), No. 2, pp. 105-120).— 

 Pot experiments conducted at the California Experiment Station are reported 

 to determine the effect of stable manure on soil containing alkali salts as a 

 medium for the growth of barley. The soil was a clay adobe, and the salts 

 were tested singly at rates of 0.3 per cent each for sodium chlorid and sodium 

 carbonate and 0.6 per cent for sodium sulphate. Stable manure was added at 

 rates of 20, 40, GO, and 80 tons per acre, and four successive crops vv'ere grown 

 in the same pots. 



While no final conclusions are drawn, the data indicate that the tolerance of 

 the barley plant to the toxic effect of salts is very much enhanced by the addi- 

 tion of organic matter in the form of barnyard manure. Culture pots containing 

 sodium chlorid and sodium sulphate gave more definite results than those con- 

 taining sodium carbonate. It is concluded that the data point to a practical 

 application of this method of reducing the toxicity of alkali salts. 



Farm manure: Its production, conservation, and use, E. O. Fippin {Cornell 

 Reading Course for the Farm, No. 127 {1917), pp. 37-72, figs. iG).— This is a 

 brief popular bulletin on the subject, prepared with special reference to New 

 York conditions. 



Botanical composition of a permanent pasture as influenced by fertilizers 

 of different compositions, J. J. Skinner and G. F. Noll {Soil Sci., 7 {1919), 

 No. 2, pp. 161-175, figs. 7). — The results of fertilizer experiments begun in 1910 

 (E. S. R., 35, p. 517) on grass on loam soil at the Pennsylvania Experiment 

 Station are reported. 



The fertilizers acid phosphate, sodium nitrate, and potassium chlorid were 

 used alone and in combinations of twos and threes, the ingredients varying 

 in 10 per cent stages. The total amount applied on each plat annually was 

 50 lbs. per acre of phosphate, nitrate, or potash. The plats were located in 

 a pasture where the vegetation was originally Canada and Kentucky blue 

 grasses, timothy, and white and red clover. 



It w^as found that at the end of seven years the differently fertilized plats 

 contained the various species in distinctly different proportions. Kentucky 

 blue glass had become the predominant variety, while in the beginning Canada 

 blue grass prevailed in larger proportion. Complete fertilizer mixtures high 

 in nitrogen seemed specially favorable for the dominance of Kentucky blue grass 

 over its competitors, while timothy was somewhat more favored by the fer- 

 tilizers high in potash. 



Grass generally had predominated over clover in the plats receiving fertilizers 

 with high ratios of nitrogen, while clover and especially red clover had been 

 crowded out of such fertilized plats. Clover had existed most easily in the 

 plats fertilized with mixtures of phosphate and potash with no, or only a small 

 amount of, nitrogen. The largest amount of clover occurred in the no-nitrogen 

 series of plats, and decreased in the plats as the nitrogen content of the 

 fertilizer increased. This was very marked in the case of red clover. 



The soil of the plats receiving well-balanced mixtures of acid phosphate, 

 sodium nitrate, and potassium chlorid, or mixtures containing principally 



