AQUEOUS SOLUTION OF THE SOIL. 319 
Bonn, Prussia, not freshly manured, and was treated with 
about one-third its weight (36.5 per cent) of cold water 
for ten days. 
Wunder employed soil from a field of the Experiment 
Station, Chemnitz, Saxony. This soil had not been re- 
cently manured, and was of rather inferior quality (yield- 
ed 15 bushels wheat per acre, English). It was also 
treated with about one-third its weight (34.5 per cent) of 
water for four weeks. 
The solutions thus procured contained in 100,000 parts, 
Bonn. Chemnitz. 
Silica, 480 2.57 
Sulphuric acid, 10.02 — 
Phosphoric acid, 3.10 traces 
Oxide of iron and alumina, trace 1.17 
Chloride of sodium, 5.86 4.76 
Lime, 12.80 8.36 
Magnesia, 3.84 3.74 
Potash, 11.54 0.75 
Soda, 1.10 3.04 
If we assume with Anderson that 1,500 tons (= 3,360,000 
Ibs.) of water remain in these soils to feed a crop, and that 
this quantity makes solutions like those whose composition 
is given above, we have dissolved (in pounds per English 
acre) from the soil of 
Bonn. Chemnitz. 
Silica, 161 86 
Sulphuric acid, 343 = 
Phosphoric acid, : 104 ? 
Oxide of iron and alumina, 39 
Chloride of sodium, 197 160 
Lime, 430 281 
Magnesia, 129 126 
Potash, 387 5 
Soda, 37 102 
These results differ widely from those based on the com- 
position of drain-water. Eichhorn, by a similar calcula- 
tion, was led to the conclusion that the soil he operated 
with was capable of nourishing the heaviest crops with 
