AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 167 



Organic matter- 



Insoluble organic matter 6.1209 



Humic acid 0.8924 



Apocrenic acid 0. 1280 



Crenic acid 0.0128 



Water 2.0930 



9.2471 



99.9462 



Amount of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen in 100 parts 

 of soil — 



Carbon 3.1400 



Oxygen 3.5060 



Nitrogen 0. 1428 



Hydrogen 0.4200 



2d. Analysis, by the writer, of sterile soil from the upper Palati- 

 nate, Bavaria — 



Water 0.535 



Organic matter 1. 850 



Silica 0.016 



Oxyd of iron and alumina 1.640 



Lime 0.096 



Magnesia trace. 



Carbonic acid trace. 



Phosphoric acid trace. 



Chlorine trace. 



Alkalies none. 



Quartz and insoluble silicates 95.863 



100.000 



In fertile soils there is always to be found a quantity of fixed min- 

 eral as well as organic matters that are soluble in pure water. In 

 the wheat soil this quantity amounted to but three parts in 1,000, and 

 in this Dr. Anderson found no phosphoric acid and no oxyd of iron, 

 although all the other mineral ingredients of plants were present. 

 In the sterile soil nothing weighable, when, as was the case, but a 

 small sample was operated on, could be separated by water alone, 

 but as even this soil supported some vegetation — the whortleberry and 

 various grasses as well as lichens, all the minerals found in vegeta- 

 tion might have been detected by exhausting a sufficiently large 

 quantity. In the fertile soil is found a larger amount of matters solu- 

 ble in acid, in the above instance six and a half per cent. ; and here 

 the analyst had no difficulty in finding all the mineral food of vegeta- 

 tion. In the sterile soil but little more than four per cent, of matters 

 were dissolved by acids, and in this phosphoric acid and alkalies 

 were not present in appreciable quantity. Finally, the larger share 

 of the soil in both cases resists the solvent action of acids nearly 

 altogether. 



