30 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 315 



quinic acid percentage. Since no one has found more than .1 percent of benzoic 

 acid in cranberries, and more commonly .05 percent is reported, one may deduct 

 one of those quantities from the percentage of quinic acid calculated from the 

 barium and be close to the truth for any sample of cranberry. 



Leading varieties of cranberries analyzed by this method have shown the 

 following percentages of quinic acid corrected by deducting .05 for benzoic acid. 



Percent 



Early Black 81 — .96 



Howes 1.05 — 1.20 



Centennial 88 — 1.00 



McFarlin 91 — 1.00 



Holliston 74 — .86 



Chipman 82 — 1.02 



These varieties constitute the bulk of the cranberries on the market as Cape 

 Cod cranberries. 



A Study of the Availability of Soil Potash with the Object of Developing a 

 System of Diagnosis for the Soils of the State. (F. W. Morse.) The project has 

 been brought to the final stage of preparation for publication as a bulletin. The 

 soils of the State are naturally strong in potash, but vary widely in their ability 

 to supply it to crops. Heavy, natural grass soils with normal rainfall do not 

 respond to potash fertilizers. Light, easily tilled soils require additional soluble 

 potash to reenforce the soil potash dissolved in the limited supply of water held 

 by them. 



Mineral Requirements for the Growth of Dairy Heifers. (J. G. Archibald and 

 E. Bennett.) During the year the work in animal nutrition was transferred from 

 the Department of Chemistry to the Department of Animal Husbandry. This 

 change made available the much larger college herd for nutrition studies and 

 involved the dispersal of the small experiment station herd and the conversion 

 to other purposes of the building in which this herd had been housed. This 

 project was therefore brought to completion and results from it will be published 

 during the year. 



Studies in the Chemistry of Pasture Grass. (J. G. Archibald and E. Bennett.) 

 Results of a three-year study of the composition of six species of grass and one 

 species of legume, all grown without fertilizer other than that residual in the 

 soil, have been submitted recently for publication in the Journal of Agricultural 

 Research. 



The project was continued this season to note differential effects (if any) of 

 a complete fertilizer on the composition of the several species. The work has been 

 seriously interfered with this year by winter-killing and re-seeding difficulties, 

 and it will be necessary to repeat it during at least one more season. 



This project is now being conducted in cooperation with the Department 

 of Animal Husbandry, due to transfer of the project leader to that department. 



