290 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVI. No. 1186 



This deduction seems to be supported by the 

 fact that legumes when inoculated will grow 

 in the raw subsoils, whereas the non-legumes 

 will not. That legumes will not grow on sub- 

 soils of humid regions as is claimed by Alway, 

 McDole and Rost is not, so far as I am aware, 

 proved. In any case their claim that the 

 failure of such inoculated legumes to develop 

 on humid subsoils " is to be attributed to a 

 lack of availability of the phosphoric acid or 

 of the potash or of both," appears to be an 

 assumption which is unsupported by fact. 

 Data on the content of water-soluble phos- 

 phoric acid and potash in subsoils of humid 

 regions give no indication, so far as the writer 

 is aware, of a paucity in those respects which 

 would at all account for the total failure to 

 develop manifested by the inoculated legume 

 plants mentioned above. If inoculated le- 

 gume seeds do fail to develop on humid sub- 

 soils, such failure must be accounted for, it 

 would seem, on other grounds than those pro- 

 posed by Alway, McDole and Eost. 



It may also be added here that Hilgard's 

 explanation for the " rawness " of subsoils is 

 probably neither correct nor necessary. One 

 is not obliged to assume a washing down of 

 fine clay and silt particles from the soil into 

 the subsoil to account for very imperfect 

 aeration in the latter. Indeed, the sands of 

 nearly uniform texture for several feet in 

 depth, which are common in California, ex- 

 hibit similar rawness in the subsoil, to that of 

 the loams and clays which are underlaid by 

 almost impenetrable silty clays. 



SUMMARY 



1. Subsoils of arid regions are certainly no 

 less " raw " than those of semi-arid regions, 

 and probably only slightly less so than those 

 of humid regions. 



2. If, as seems as yet unproved, inoculated 

 legume seeds fail to develop on humid subsoil 

 material, such failure can not justifiably be 

 attributed as is done by Alway, McDole and 

 Eost, to a lack of available phosphoric acid 

 and potash. 



3. A lack of available nitrogen probably is 

 sufficient to account for rawness of subsoils. 



4. The poor aeration of subsoils which in- 

 directly results in their rawness, may be ac- 

 counted for more simply than by Hilgard's 

 explanation of the washing down of fine par- 

 ticles into the subsoil, which prevents proper 

 aeration. Chas. B. Lipman 



University of California 



NORTHERN LIGHTS 



To THE Editor of Science : Readers of Sci- 

 ence will be interested to note the following 

 observation of the northern lights. We noted 

 them here on the evening of August 9 at about 

 8 :45. They extended across the sky from 

 northwest to east by northeast. They ap- 

 peared as streaks, not very wide, and there 

 was little or no flickering. A diffuse glow in 

 the sky was more evident than the streaks. 

 The night was clear and bright, so that this 

 may account for the fact that they were not 

 very prominent. They seemed to extend from 

 40° to 70° in height. At 9:35 p.m. they were 

 still visible, but shortly after 10 there was no 

 trace of them. 



The northern lights, of which so many ac- 

 counts were published in Science about this 

 time last year, were observed here also, al- 

 though I do not recall that any one reported 

 the fact. Thomas Byrd Magath 



TJ. S. Bureau of Fisheries 

 Biological Station, 

 Fairport, Iowa 



the new moon 



To THE Editor of Science: In making some 

 computations last March about the occurrence 

 of New Moon, an error of statement was dis- 

 covered in the 9th edition of the Encyclo- 

 paedia Britannica under " Calendar," Vol. IV., 

 p. 594, and repeated in the 11th edition. Vol. 

 IV., p. 993; it is also given in Barlow & 

 Bryan's " Mathematical Astronomy," p. 215. 

 The erroneous statement is that New Moon oc- 

 curred on January 1 in 1 B.C. New Moon in 

 January, 1 B.C., occurred on January 25, 12" 

 26'" Jerusalem Mean Civil Time. 



Otto Klotz 



Dominion Observatory, 

 July 31, 1917 



