294 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLTTI. No. 1212 



TABLE n 



Soil Analysis Calculated to Dry Basis 



Per Cent. 



"Volatile matter 25.0 



Ash other than Bilica 12.5 



Moisture in sample 20.0 



Wanted the percentage composition of the 

 soil as submitted to the analyst in percentages 

 of moisture, silica, ash other than silica and 

 volatile matter. 



than the chemist, who made them, found in 

 the analyses he made. Soil physicists are ap- 

 parently not the only class who are denoting 

 the moisture present in certain materials as 

 " per cent, on the dry basis." Different indi- 

 viduals and laboratories have been observed 

 when making moisture determinations to re- 

 port, for example, 33.3 per cent, moisture when 

 the material under analysis contained 25 gm. 

 of moisture in every 100 gms. of material. 



ISO' 



field JSo 



Dry Sasis Ffer 100 g.Dnj Soil 



K g- H 



tS q. Volofib 



a % i?^.^"* ---''■ lii.59.Ash oiher 

 (latter' ■ ,0 ./. than SiO, 



[in V A«h ottier H^ 12 s V-^^ ottwr 



fc 625% SiO. 



&>o^ 



Totals 



100% 

 100 g. 



100 % 

 80 g. 



100% 

 \tSg. 



TABLE III 



Interpretation of Soil Analysis 



Soil Physlclsta, Chemista. 



Per Cent. Per Cent. 



Moisture 16.0 20.0 



Silica 52.5 50.0 



Ash other than silica. 10.5 10.0 



Volatile matter 21.0 20.0 



Total iOOTO 100:0 



The above table is evidence that the prac- 

 tise of stating moisture as " per cent, on the 

 dry basis " has caused the soil physicist to re- 

 gard analyses to mean difierent percentages 



Here the phrase, " per cent, of moisture on the 

 dry basis" was not included, for they con- 

 sider that analyses should be taken as on the 

 dry basis, unless it is specified otherwise. 

 The interpretation to be given incomplete 

 analyses must be based on a knowledge of the 

 reporter's method of calculating moisture. 

 This often has to be learned through corre- 

 spondence. 



It is said that "usage dictates." In this 

 connection there are different uses made of the 

 word per cent. The analyst is not the one to 



