"Tests of like amounts of coarse and fine horse manure show, by the pot method, 

 poorer results with the fine material. This was probably due to the fact that the 

 finer manure was more intimately mixed with the soil, thus causing a more even 

 distribution of material which could furnish food for the organisms which destroy 

 nitrates. Occasional aeration seemed in this case to have been beneficial, but in 

 another instance it failed to lessen the apparent destruction of nitrates. 



"The benefit, shown by the method of paraffined pots as a result of introducing 

 hay, straw 7 , and green parts of plants into the soil, was striking. The materials are 

 arranged below in the order of the benefit observed when used with lime, the most 

 beneficial being at the top: Cowpea vines, Indian corn plants, rye straw, clover 

 plants, sumac stems and leaves, timothy hay. 



"In a trial of different phosphates for purposes of comparison with field results, 

 the data obtained with the paraffined pots point in most particulars in the same direc- 

 tion as those obtained in the field. The effect of lime in increasing the efficiency of 

 roasted 'Redondite 7 (iron and aluminum phosphate), as shown by the pots, was also 

 in agreement with field trials. 



"Comparisons of both the after effect and the immediate effect of sodium and 

 potassium salts, though showing agreement with field results in the main essentials, 

 differed considerably. This was doubtless due in part to unequal drying out of the 

 soil in the first instance, before the tests were made, and to the fact that the variety 

 of plant was not the same that was used in the field. 



"Pot tests of the soil where nitrates had been used for grass in different amounts 

 gave results essentially as were to be expected from the field experiments. 



"The effect of fresh horse manure in depressing the yield and transpiration is in 

 accord with other observations, and it may have been due to a destruction of nitrates. 

 A similar effect of dried horse manure was also observed. 



"The influence of liming both in connection with nitrate of soda and suphate of 

 ammonia was shown by the pot tests with several varieties of plants, to be in good 

 agreement with field tests. 



"A test of an unproductive soil at West Kingston, which was of similar origin to 

 that upon the experiment station farm, revealed the same requirements both before 

 and after liming as the station soil. Liming was also helpful. 



' ' In general, the tests by the method of the paraffined wire pots show good agree- 

 ment with field observations of a whole season's duration." 



Unproductive soils, T. Bieler-Chatelan (Chron. Agr. Vaud, 18 (1905), Nos. 22, 

 pp. 531-5S5; 23, pp. 558-562). — This article discusses soils rendered unproductive by 

 defective drainage and bad physical condition due especially to improper and 

 exhaustive methods of culture, and describes various methods of improving such 

 soils. 



Some changes in the soil under the influence of the activity of earth- 

 worms, A. Murinov (Mater. Izuchen. Russ. Pochv., 1905, No. 16; abs. in Zhur. Opuitn. 

 Agron. (Russ. Jour. Expt. Lanchc), 6 (1905), Xo. 4, pp. 460, 461). — Alternate layers 

 of different kinds of soil were placed in zinc boxes with one glass side, earthworms 

 were added, the soil kept in a proper state of moisture, and the changes which the 

 soil underwent determined by analyses at the beginning and end of the experiments, 

 which lasted one year. A check series of boxes was treated in the same manner 

 except that earthworms were not added. 



The results show that in the soils to which the earthworms were added the phos- 

 phoric acid soluble in 10 per cent hydrochloric acid increased in all cases. The lime 

 content, which at the beginning was greatest in the surface soils, was found at the 

 end of the experiments to gradually increase from the surface toward the subsoil. 

 The nitrogen was more uniformly distributed throughout the soil at the end of the 

 experiment than at the beginning. — p. fireman. 



