ABSORPTIVK POWER OP TTTE SOIL. 



341 



solution liaving been employed — the bases were displaced 

 in quantities that bear to each other no obvious relation. 



Another fact wliich follows from the rule just illustra- 

 ted, is the following : Any base that has been absorbed by 

 the soil, may be released from combination partly or en- 

 tirely by any other. 



Peters subjected a soil which had been saturated with 

 potash and subsequently washed coi)iously with water to 

 the action of various solutions. The results, which exhib- 

 it the principle just stated, are subjoined. The soil was 

 employed in portions of 100 grams, each of which con- 

 tained 0.204 gram of absorbed potash. These were di- 

 gested for three days with 250 c.c. of solutions (of ni- 

 trates) of the content below indicated. 



For sake of comparison the amount of matters taken up 

 by distilled water is added. 



"We notice that while distilled water dissolved about ' j 

 of the absorbed potash, the saline solutions took up two, 

 three, or more times that quantity. We observe further 

 that soda liberated lime and magnesia, ammonia liberated 

 lime and soda, lime brought into solution magnesia and 

 soda, and magnesia set free lime and soda from the soil 

 itself. 



Again, Way, Brustlein, and Peters, have shown in case 

 of various soils they experimented with, that the satura- 

 ting of them, with one ha'^e (potasii and ' lime wore tried) 

 increases the absorbent power for other bases, and on the 

 other hand, treatment with a-ids, ichl-h remores absorbed 

 ^ases, diminishes their absorptive power. 



