POTASH IN MASSACHUSETTS SOILS 



Gloucester stony fine sandy loam. 



Becket loam. 



Bizzell has published complete analyses of a large number of New York soils 

 in Bulletin 513 of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station. 

 Among them are several series common to Massachusetts: viz., Coloma, Dover, 

 Dutchess, Gloucester, and Merrimac. All the determinations were for total and 

 not acid-soluble constituents. Below are given summarized results for the five 

 different series, limited to the potassium in the surface soil to a depth of 8 inches. 

 Since the percentages are of potassium, the figures are somewhat smaller than if 

 calculated for potash, which is potassium oxide. 



Table 3— Total potassium in some New York soils 

 (Bizzell) 



Number Percentage of Total Potassium 



of ; : 



Samples Maximum Minimum Average 



Coloma fine sandy loam. . 3 1.84 1.73 1.81 



Dover loam 2 2.86 2.86 2.86 



Dutchess silt loam 3 1.82 1.07 1.48 



Gloucester loam 4 2.64 1.68 2.17 



Merrimac sandy loam.... 2 2.69 2.36 2.53 



Morse and Curry published numerous determinations of total potash in clay 

 loam and clay soils in the Report of the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment 

 Station for 1906-1908 (p. 265). In twelve lowland soils, total potash ranged from 

 2.21 to 3.96 percent; in ten upland soils, the range was from 2.05 to 2.75 percent. 



Bizzell noted that clay loams and clays were much higher in potassium than 

 the soils of lighter character. Sands were especially low in that substance. 



Failyer, Smith, and Wade of the U. S. Bureau of Soils made a study of the plant- 

 food constituents contained in the different sizes of soil particles separated into 

 sands, silt, and clay. The study covered many representatives of numerous soil 

 series and its results were published in Bulletin 54 of the Bureau. Of their exam- 

 ination of glacial soils, they say (p. 24), "In general, the finer separates of the 

 soils of this group contain the greater percentages of the several elements deter- 

 mined . . . The glacial soils consist largely of crushed rocks. Much of the material 

 composing them has not been profoundly weathered." Of the potash content, 

 they say (p. 30), "the clays of the glacial soils contain about twice the percentage 

 that the sands do." In the summary (p. 35) it is stated that as a general rule the 

 smaller particles of soils are richer in potassium, calcium, magnesium, and phos- 

 phorus than the coarser particles. In glacial soils, the coarser particles are rela- 

 tively high in percentage of potash, lime, and magnesia. The larger mechanical 



