LIMING OF SOILS FROM A PHYSIOLOGICAL STANDPOINT. 23 
of the Rhone.’ In the eleven vineyard soils analyzed by A. Hilger® 
calcium carbonate was found from 3.1 to 69.6 per cent, and magnesium 
carbonate from 0.9 to 5.1 per cent. In nota single instance did the 
amount of magnesia exceed that of lime. 
A great number of soils have been analyzed in Germany, but many 
of the publications are not available to the writer. It may, however, 
be mentioned that in even some recent German publications on the 
composition of certain soils and their need of manure, so little atten- 
tion was paid to the amount of magnesia that this was not even quan- 
titatively determined, while potassa, lime, and phosphoric acid were. 
Soils from Hungary.—Bela von Bitt6* determined the lime and 
magnesia in soil and subsoil from forty-three localities in Hungary, 
and of the eighty-four analyses mentioned, there are only seventeen 
showing an excess of magnesia over lime. Comparing all those anal- 
yses there is found: 
Per cent. 
2 RSE EO TD SA ey ee D 25. 44 
OS a ee 3. 81 
reeeeeeTLINEN e c kas a 14 
a mmarCnNen RUMP SMR 2 ee be a 2 ee on s . 08 
The range of proportion between the amounts of lime and magnesia 
is 1:0.02 to 1:3. In most cases of the excess of magnesia over lime, 
however, this excess is but small and does not amount to more than 
one-half. These soils have been manured for years, either with 
animal dung or with commercial fertilizers; hence, often considerable 
differences of composition occur in the same formation between sur- 
face soil and subsoil, especially in the relation of the lime and mag- 
nesia content. 
From the observations of the above author it follows that the great- 
est yield was obtained on those soils in which the amount of magnesia 
either was smaller than that of lime or exceeded the latter only very 
moderately. It is to be regretted, however, that the mechanical con- 
- dition and the amount of the other nutrients were not investigated, 
thereby permitting more reliable inferences. : 
From the analyses of Hungarian soils by Tolles* it is seen that 
either the lime predominates over magnesia or if magnesia is in excess, 
it is but moderate, not reaching one and one-half times that of lime. 
SOILS FROM ASIATIC COUNTRIES. 
Souls from Japan.—A great number of soils have been analyzed in 
the laboratory of the geological survey of Japan, and very valuable 
reports have been issued on that subject by the Imperial Japanese 
— — - —— ~ — 
*Analysis by Alberti, Jahresber. f. 3 Landw. Vers.-Stat., Vol. L, p. 245. 
Agriculturchemie, 1873 and 1874. *Ibid., Vol. XLII, p. 409, 1893. 
*Ibid., 1879 and 1886. ; 
