76 EXPERLMEXT STATION. [Jan. 



soil, was very near the danger mark, and no doubt it would be 

 good judgment to remove one-third of this soil and replace with 

 new before i)utting in another crop. That it is not necessary to 

 have such an excessive amount of soluble ])lant food present in 

 ordei- to grow satisfactory crops is proved by a reference to 

 sample C, listed under normal soils, which had been used for 

 three seasons with very satisfactory results. Xote the com- 

 paratively small amount of total and individual soluble salines 

 present. 



In case of this latter soil, about one-half of the organic mat- 

 ter was derived from air-dried peat. The abundance of organic 

 matter present insured suitable mechanical conditions as well' 

 as the consei^vation of moisture. The writer is of the opinion 

 that a good quality of well-cured, air-dried peat, or even waste 

 from cotton mills, might be used to good advantage when pre- 

 paring the soil, in place of one-half of the horse manure which 

 is generally used. The use of peat would, of course, necessitate 

 an abundant application of lime (about 5 bushels per cord of 

 peat), and the soil should be mixed several months l)efore be- 

 ing placed in the houses, and should be worked over at least 

 twice during that time. 



The above inquiry has been confined to the cucumber crop, 

 but almost any plant may suffer from overfertilization. It may 

 be stated that the various plant families differ in their ability 

 to withstand the effect of concentrated soil solutions. The 

 growth of young tobacco plants has been checked and the plants 

 seriously injured by about one-eighth as much water soluble 

 salines as were shown to be contained in the average abnormal 

 cucumber soil.-' 



Effect of Oveufekttlization ox Sweet Peas. 

 Some of the crops grown by florists often suffer from the 

 effect of malnutrition. In 1911 four samjdos of soil upon 

 which sweet peas had been growing were forwarded to the sta- 

 tion for examination. Two of the samples were from houses 

 showing a satisfactory normal growth, and two were from 

 houses where the plants were unproductive nnd were suffering 



' Sco article entitled, "Tobacco Injury due to Mnlnutrition or Overfertilization," in Part II 

 of the twenty-fourth annual report of this station, pp. 35-47. 



