105 



Soil waters rising from a subsoil are charged with more or less of mineral 

 salts; and if the upper layers of the soil have a different composition from the 

 lower layers in which the soil waters have been charged, we may expect chemical 

 changes to take place according to the )vell established facts of soil absorption. 



In view of these considerations some work was undertaken with alkaline 

 solvents. I'he first solution used contained the same amount of ammonium oxa- 

 late as the solution used by Dr. Peter; but instead of the acid an amount of 

 ammonia equivalent to the acid was added. All work is based on the same rela- 

 tive quantities of soil and solution as used by Dr. Peter — 200 grams soil and 1,000 

 cc solution. In working with Dyer's solution the digestions continued at room 

 temperature for seven days, with shaking at frequent intervals. All the other 

 digestions were continued for five hours, with constant shaking in the apparatus 

 described in Indiana Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 55, and Wiley's 

 Principles and Practice of Agricultural Analysis, Volume II, page 142. The 

 flasks were inverted every thirty seconds. The utmost care was used to secure 

 clean precipitates of potassium platinic chlorid. 



THE SOILS USED. 



Tlie Kentucky soils are those used for work by the Association of Official 

 Agricultural Chemists for the past two years, and are described on page 31 of 

 Bulletin 47, Chemical Division United States Department of Agriculture. Briefly 

 stated, the soil requires the addition of potash to produce satisfactory crops of 

 corn, potatoes and tobacco, but seems to contain enough available potash for a 

 good wheat crop. The field tests indicate abundance of available phosphoric 

 acid. Soil No. 1 has received phosphoric acid and nitrogen, and Soil No. 2 has 

 received potash and nitrogen. Of the Indiana soils the one marked "Turley " is 

 from Orange County. It is a medium clay resting on a red clay, which in turn 

 rests on the limestone rock of the region. 



The land has been under cultivation for some seventy years, and at one time 

 was so badly worn as to be considered of very little value. The sample was 

 drawn after plowing for corn in the spring of 1896. In 1895 wheat had been so 

 poor on this land that hogs were turned in to eat the standing crop. In the spring 

 of 1S90 the clover was so uneven that the land was put in corn, of which it pro- 

 duced in this very favorable year for corn, thirty-seven bushels per acre on the 

 unfertilized plats. The owner does not believe that it can produce a profitable 

 crop of wheat without the use of some commercial fertilizer or manure. The 

 usual application has been one hundred pounds ground bone per acre. The field 

 tests this year showed marked gain in corn from the use of acid phosphate and 



