68 • BARRINGTON MOORE Vol. Ill, No. 1 



found that the burnt lime makes the soil strongly alkaline; this decreases 

 greatly in 3 days, and after that more slowly, leaving the soils still alkaline 

 after lo months. 



The alkalinity of these three soils was determined by titration with normal 

 hydrochloric acid in .05 normal solution in the same way that the acidities 

 were tested. The sand was .0058 normal alkaline at the beginning and was 

 reduced to .00117 after 96 days' exposure. The mixture of sand and humus 

 was .0036 normal alkaline at the outset and dropped to .00116 normal, or 

 practically the same as the sand. The humus was very alkaline, .0127 normal 

 at first and decreased to .00283 at the end. 



A third series of soils, the same as the foregoing, but with a milder appli- 

 cation of lime, was added on June 23, fifteen days after the other two series 

 had been started. In this set the sand received only .75 percent of burnt 

 lime : the mixture of sand and humus received .75 percent for the 80 percent 

 of sand, and i percent for the 20 percent of humus. The humus received 

 only .5 percent of lime. Titration tests showed that the sand had an alkalinity 

 of .00127 normal at the beginning, which decreased to .00097 by August 29. 

 The mixture of sand and humus was .00097 normal at the start; and the 

 humus was only .00065 normal alkaline in the beginning and was neutral at 

 the end. The alkalinity in this series was therefore comparatively low. 



The addition of the larger amounts of lime appears to have slightly 

 affected the physical properties. The wilting coefficient of the sand was 

 reduced from .85 to .76 percent, and that of the sand and humus from 2.4 

 to 1.5 percent. The wilting coefficient of the humus was 50.2 percent with 

 the lime, as against 43.5 percent without. With humus the lime caused the 

 formation of a surface crust, due apparently to rapid carrying to the surface 

 of water containing salts in solution, the water evaporating and leaving a 

 crust of salts. This explanation would agree with Wolkoff's (12) work on 

 the influence of alkali salts on soil moisture. The crust interfered with 

 germination and re-formed as soon as broken. 



The soils were placed in flats of cypress, Taxodium distichum, to avoid 

 the influence of decaying wood. These flats were 8 centimeters deep inside, 

 and 48 centimeters long by 37 centimeters wide. Each was filled level with 

 the edge, but the humus settled with exposure more than the sand until it 

 became about 5 centimeters deep as against about 7 for the sand. On 

 June 8 each flat containing a soil as above described (except the light lime 

 series) was sown with seed of red pine, Pinus resinosa. Jack pine, Pinus 

 Banksiana, pitch pine, Pinus rigida, and white cedar, Thuja occidentalis. 

 White pine, Pinus strobus, was also included, but did not germinate sufficiently 

 to give results worth noting. 



On June 10 five sugar maple seedlings one year old, of wild stock col- 

 lected from the immediate vicinity, were transplanted into each of the six 

 flats. 



