ABSORPTION OF SALTS BY SOILS. 151 



be between yields and the absorptive power of soils for salts car- 

 ried in solutions which are brought in contact with them. 



The results of these observations on the sand are in several 

 ways quite in accord with those obtained from the ILagerstown 

 -Loam. To illustrate, during the shorter digestion, more lime 

 went into solution during the 24 hours than during the 72 hours, 

 as was the case with the ITagerstown Loam. More SO 4 went into 

 solution from the sand during the shorter period and less was 

 fixed by the soil referred to. In the case of the potash, too, both 

 in the surface foot and in the fourth foot of the Hagerstown 

 Loam, there was a smaller absorption associated with the longer 

 period, and there are indications that this was also true of the 

 sand. We have no reason to think that these relations may have 

 resulted from some systematic error affecting all the observa- 

 tions, but it is, perhaps, not impossible that such may have been 

 the case. 



The observations here cited are in some ways quite in accord 

 with some of the observations and remarks of Voelcker,* made 

 in connection with his study of the absorptive power of different 

 soils on liquid maniures, and there have been presented in the 

 next table two sets of his determinations made upon two quite 

 different soils, with a view to ascertaining their relative absorp- 

 tive powers. 



The two cases chosen are the soil of a, permanent pasture and 

 a poor, sandy soil from the neighborhood of Cirencester, con- 

 taining : 



"Journal Royal Agricultural Society, Volume XX, 1859, pp. 141-148. 



