1922] EATON—SULPHUR CONTENT OF SOILS 47 
content of the rainwater of cities. Some of my determinations 
show several times as much sulphur in Chicago rainwater as in 
rainwater collected in the country some distance from Chicago. 
Most of the sulphur in rainwater is in the sulphate form. It might 
be expected, therefore, that the sulphate sulphur present in the 
Chicago soils might account for much of the total sulphur. Roughly 
quantitative determinations showed an average sulphate sulphur 
content of the three surface soils of table VI of 158 pounds per 
two million pounds of soil. This is high, compared with the Iowa 
soils as analyzed by Brown and KetLioce (2). They found an 
average sulphate sulphur content of 59 pounds per two million 
pounds of soil, but the sulphate sulphur present in the Chicago 
soils accounts for comparatively little of the total sulphur. Most 
of this is in the organic form, and the high sulphur content of the 
soils is due mainly to the high organic matter content. That the 
sulphate sulphur content is not higher may be accounted for prob- 
ably by the ease with which sulphur in a soluble form is leached from 
the soil. 
Lyon and Bizzevt (14), MacIntire and co-workers (15), and 
other investigators have performed lysimeter experiments. Lyon 
and BizzE.t show that 3-6 times as much sulphur is lost in drainage 
as is used by the crop, and when put in a soluble sulphate added to 
the tanks, over one-half of the amount added in any one year was 
removed in drainage the same year. 
Table VII summarizes the data of tables I, II, IV, V, and VI. 
Fig. 1 compares in a graphical way the sulphur, phosphorus, and 
organic matter content of the five groups of soil. The Alabama, 
Maryland, and Oklahoma soils are all low in sulphur, phosphorus, 
and organic matter, the Alabama soils being especially deficient 
in all three substances. The phosphorus, on the average, is not 
much greater in amount than the sulphur. Although the central 
States soils are better supplied with sulphur and phosphorus than 
these three groups of soils, they would not be considered high in 
either. The range in the amount of sulphur and phosphorus 
present in the various soils is rather great. Certain of the soils 
would be considered fairly well supplied with both sulphur and 
phosphorus. The organic matter content of the soils is on the 
