NOTES. 197 



the direct and important relation wliicli the agricultural chemists have toward 

 the enforcement of this act. 



The report of the associate referee on phosphoric acid, II. D. Haskins, dealt 

 largely with the importance of providing state fertilizer control officials with 

 some satisfactory method for handling the five or six different brands of basic 

 slag now on the market. He considered the fineness and other methods now 

 utilized by the association as unsatisfactory and faulty, and recommended the 

 adoption of the Wagner method now employed in Germany. The referee on the 

 determination of nitrogen, C. H. Jones, again called attention to the impor- 

 tance of determining the availability of nitrogen in fertilizers and crude mate- 

 rials, and the advisability of making this a point for future work. 



E. L. Baker, referee on potash, reported on cooperative work with the official, 

 the volumetric cobalti-nitrite, and the gravimetric cobalti-nitrite methods. This 

 indicated that the majority of analysts obtained good results with the volumetric 

 method, and that this method, with some slight modifications, will be a good, ac- 

 curate optional one. He recommended a further study of the volumetric and 

 gravimetric cobalti-nitrite methods for another year, and a study of the modi- 

 fied official method with some further modifications. The associate referee on 

 potash availability, J. A. Bizzell, pointed out that with our present knowledge 

 of soils an attempt to devise laboratory methods for available potash would be 

 unjustified, and recommended a further investigation of the loss of water- 

 soluble potash in potash salts when mixed with acid phosphate. 



J. G. Lipman, referee on soils, reported cooperative work with the Drushel 

 modification of the cobalti-nitrite method in connection with the J. L. Smith 

 fusion method for total potassium in soils, and also on methods for determining 

 soil acidity. The potash methods agreed very well amongst themselves, and the 

 referee indicated that the cobalti-nitrite method should be an acceptable op- 

 tional one. The results of the acidity tests were very variable and contradic- 

 tory, and their continuation was recommended. O. M. Shedd introduced a 

 recommendation that the referee on soils for 1911 be instructed to investigate 

 a more exact method for humus estimation, and that certain changes be made in 

 the text of Bulletin 107 of the Bureau of Chemistry, revised. C. G. Hopkins 

 called attention to the fact that it is desirable to report the total amount of 

 A^arious constituents in soils and fertilizers in connection with the so-called 

 available or acid-soluble constituents in order to be able to supply data upon 

 which to base a just estimate of the material and its usefulness. 



C. C. McDonnell, referee on insecticides, reported on the cooperative work 

 with methods for lead arsenate, London purple, and potassium cyanid. The 

 results obtained were generally good. The referee on water, J. K. Haywood, 

 reported on the cooperative work of 8 collaborators, on the basis of which he 

 recommended a continuation of work with the same methods for next year. 



As chairman of the committee on the unification of terms for reporting 

 analytical results in soils, fertilizers, and ash, R. J. Davidson stated that the 

 committee had decided to bring the subject to the attention of the International 

 Congress of Applied Chemistry, with a view to securing international agree- 

 ment. The suggestions of the committee were toward the ultimate adoption 

 of the element system, but it was advised that no State discontinue the use of 

 the terms now in use until such discontinuation is also approved by the asso- 

 ciation. 



The chairman of the committee on the testing of chemical reagents drew par- 

 ticular attention to the indefinite designations often found on labels as to the 

 quality of reagents. L. M. Tolman, chairman of the committee on the unifica- 

 tion of alcohol tables, pointed out that a fundamental question would have to be 

 decided in regard to whether or not 60° F. is to be used as the standard tempera- 



