ANTAGONISM BETWEEN ANIONS AS AFFECTING 

 BARLEY YIELDS ON A CLAY-ADOBE SOIL 



By Charles B. Lipman, Soil Chemist, and W. F. GerickE, Assistant Soil Chemist, 

 Agricultural Experim,ent Station of the University of California 



INTRODUCTION 



In another publication (4) ^ the senior writer called attention to the 

 results obtained on the antagonism between anions as affecting both the 

 higher plants grown in soils and the bacterial flora in the soils. That 

 brief statement constitutes, so far as we are aware, the first published 

 observation on the existence of antagonism between anions in the case of 

 plants grown in soils. Since the appearance in print of the statement just 

 referred to, there has appeared the work of Miyake (10), which in reporting 

 an elaborate series of experiments confirms the fact first enunciated by 

 us as shown in the discussion below given. Our detailed results were 

 withheld from publication pending such time as complete confirmation of 

 them in repeated experiments in the same soil should make their appear- 

 ance in print justifiable. These confirmatory data have now been com- 

 pleted, and we submit them below with such discussion as is deemed per- 

 tinent and necessary. 



As may be inferred from the foregoing statements, there is no literature 

 bearing directly on the subject, with the one exception of the paper 

 noted. As is well known, however, a literature on the general principle 

 of antagonism between ions is rapidly growing voluminous. To this the 

 reader may gain access through Robertson's (14) excellent review of such 

 investigations up to a recent date and through references given by the 

 senior author in recent publications (3, 5) dealing with certain phases of 

 the subject as applied to some of the soil bacteria. In a word, so much 

 evidence has been adduced by various investigators in support of the 

 existence of antagonism between ions for living organisms that we may 

 now more properly speak of it as an established fact of great scientific 

 interest and of practical import rather than as a theory, as heretofore. 



In connection with the narrower subject of antagonism between 

 anions, however, we reiterate that very little or nothing has been accom- 

 plished. One of the reasons for this is probably to be found in the 

 repeated assertion of the ablest writers on the general subject in question 

 to the effect that anions are of little, if any, importance in a consideration 

 of antagonism between ions. Whatever be the cause, however, there are 



1 Reference is made by number to " Literature cited," p. 217. 



Journal of Agricultural Research. Vol. IV, No. 3 



Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. J*"** »S. J9iS 



Cal. — 3 

 (201) 



