2 BULLETIN 169, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



nation by the Bureau of Soils of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture shows the presence of the usual soil-forming minerals. 

 The chemical and mechanical analyses are given in Table I. 



Table I. — Chemical and mechanical analyses of the nursery soils at Halsey, Nebr., and 



Morrisville, Pa. 



[The soil samples were taken from the upper 6 inches; subsoil from depths of 15 inches at Halse3' and 12 



inches at if orris ville.] 



Percentage of soil. Percentage of sub- 



Halsey. 



Morris- 

 ville. 



soil. 



Halsey. 



Morris- 

 ville. 



Chemical constituents: 



MnO 



FesOs 



A1 2 3 



E 2 



P 2 6 



CaO 



Total salts by bridge 



N 



CO2 (from carbonates) 



Ignition loss (two determinations averaged) 



Lime requirements (CaO) per acre pounds 



Mechanical constituents (size of particles): 



Fine gravel, 2 to 1 mm 



Coarse sand, 1 to 0.5 mm 



Medium sand, 0.5 to 0.25 mm 



Fine sand, 0.25 to 0.1 mm 



Very fine sand, 0.1 to 0.05 mm 



Silt, 0.05 to 0.005 mm 



Clay, 0.005 mm. and finer 



0.24 



3.08 



14.93 



4.48 



Trace. 



.86 



.21 



.07 



None. 



2.41 



2,450 







3.0 

 9.5 

 58.1 

 21.0 

 6.5 

 2.1 



0.21 



1.60 



8.72 



1.68 



Trace. 



2.23 



.39 



.03 



None. 



2.93 



1,750 



1.0 

 10.9 

 16.1 

 28.9 

 19.2 

 18.5 



5.5 



0.18 



2.85 



14. 95 



.80 



.48 



3.79 



.09 



.09 



None. 



.55 



2,450 







3.5 

 15.4 

 61.3 

 17.5 



1.5 



0.19 



1.30 



6.20 



1.88 



.11 



1.35 



.08 



.05 



None. 



1.96 



1,750 



0.5 

 8.6 

 13.4 

 30.5 

 23.5 

 18.1 

 5.2 



The 'wilting coefficient, determined by the indirect method of Briggs 

 and Shantz, 1 was 3.42 per cent for the surface soil and 1.5 per cent 

 for the subsoil at Halsey, and 4.92 per cent for the surface soil and 

 4.73 per cent for the subsoil at Morrisville. The samples examined 

 from Halsey were taken from 10 different points in the nursery, 

 while the samples from Morrisville represent three different points. 



EXPERIMENTS AT HALSEY, NEBR. 



Experiments at the nursery at Halsey have been carried on in 

 cooperation with the United States Forest Service during the past 

 five years. Mr. Robert D. Rands assisted the writer daring the year 

 in which most of the data were secured, and Messrs. R. G. Pierce and 

 Fred R. Johnson, of the Forest Service, rendered material assistance 

 in the work. 



DISINFECTANTS USED. 



Part of the sulphuric acid used in the following experiments was 

 C. P. (chemically pure), but most of it was a clear commercial grade, 

 the acid used in most of the work here reported having a specific 

 gravity of 1.84 and that used for the latest work a specific gravity of 



1 Briggs, L. J., and Shantz, H. L. The wilting coefficient for different plants and its indirect determi- 

 nation. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry Bulletin 230, 1912. 



