Note on the Injurious Effect of Chloride. 



By 

 T. Takeuchi and S. Ito. 



It is well known that chloride of sodium can in small 

 proportions exert a beneficial action on the yield of crops ^while 

 at a moderate increase it causes a depression. It is further 

 well known that a moderate dose chloride of magnesium can 

 cause miich injury in poor sandy soils. The same dose, how- 

 ever, may prove harmless or even beneficial in a loamy soil rich 

 in calcium carbonate. Magnesium chloride may, however, act 

 in two directions, on the one hand it acts injuriously on 

 account of being a chlorine compound, on the other it can act 

 injuriously because of being a magnesium compound, and thus 

 increasing the magnesia on such fields that are suffering already 

 from want of lime and from excess of magnesia. In order to 

 exclude therefore the second influence, we have applied jointly 

 calcium and magnesium chloride. 



Ten pots holding 10 kilo loamy humus ^oil with 69^ CaO 

 and 50/0 MgO received the following general manure per pot : 



6 g. Ammonium nitrate, 

 10 g. Secondary calcium phosphate, 

 6 g. Potassium sulphate. 



Three bundles of three young plants of upland rice were 

 planted in the pots, of which two had received 0.05 9^ of both 

 chlorides, two others received 0.1^ of both chlorides and two 

 others 0.2^ of both chlorides as special manure. At the last 

 mentioned ratio the young plants died after a few weeks. The 

 harvest, gathered October 3 gave the following weights in 

 average of two pots : 



