CANE SUGAR. 



" The fertilizing elements, properly so called, were found per kilogram : 



Phosphoric acid 1-44 to 2-30, mean, 1*75 grms. 



Potash 1-56 to 3-68, ,, 2-28 



Organic nitrogen -37 to 1-40, ,, -72 ,, 



Nitric nitrogen, trace to .. '040, ,, *004 ,, 

 " Finally, the quantities of chlorine and sulphuric acid which have so great an 



influence on the formation of efflorescent salts injurious to vegetation were found in 



healthy soils. 



Chlorine .. -10 to -06 per 1000. 



Sulphuric acid -25 to 1-60 per 1000." 



The average composition of 28 samples of sugar cane soils is thus given 

 by these authors : 



* Scliloesing's method. 



The quantities given are the percentages soluble in nitric acid, according 

 to the official French method. 



The mean of seven analyses of Egyptian soils made by Mackenzie and 

 Burns 10 with hydrochloric acid as solvent gave the following results : 



Phosphoric acid 

 Potash . . 

 Lime 



Iron and Alumina.. 



246 

 615 

 418 

 270 

 22-15 



Manganese 

 Chlorine 



Organic nitrogen 

 Nitric nitrogen . 



26 

 064 

 082 

 0018 



Louisiana Soils. Stubbs 11 thus summarizes the sugar soils of 

 Louisiana : 



Our soils, then, of the sugar belt lying along the Mississippi River and its 

 numerous bayous, may be considered as varying from silty loams to very stiff clays. 



There are also the red and brown lands, varying from sandy loams to loamy 

 clays of the Red River and its outlying bayous, the Teche, the Boeuf, the 

 Cocodrie and Robert, which have been formed by a similar process by the Red 

 River, though drawn from a much more restricted area of country. 



The prairie lands west of Franklin, varying in character from black stiff clays 

 to silty loams, are our bluff lands second hand, which have been removed from the 

 western bank of the Mississippi River and spread out over the marshes of south- 

 western Louisiana. These bluff lands occur in situ on the eastern bank, running 

 continuously from Baton Rouge to Yicksburg, giving us several parishes in which 

 sugar cane is grown. These are usually silty loams, and are also of alluvial origin, 

 though antedating the present Mississippi River. The bluff and prairie lands, and 

 the alluvial deposits of the Red and Mississippi Rivers and their bayous, give the 

 soils upon which the sugar cane of Louisiana is grown. 



As the result of many samples Stubbs gives the following average. 

 Contents of the soils in the sugar belt : Lime, '5 per cent. ; potash, '4 per 

 cent.; phosphoric acid, ! per cent. ; nitrogen, *1 per cent. 



50 



