370 SOILS: PBOPERTIES AND MANAGEMENT 



of salts from cultivated soils. The drainage water was 

 obtained from the tile drains, a line of which extended 

 under each plat from one end to the other and opened 

 into a ditch, so that the water could be collected when 

 desired. The analyses are shown in the table on page 

 371. 



Ammoniacal nitrogen in the drainage water is very small 

 in quantity, but nitrate nitrogen is present in quantities 

 sufScient to make the loss of some concern. The use of 

 sodium nitrate occasioned the greatest loss of nitrogen, 

 while ammonium salts and farm manure contributed 

 nearly as much. From forty to fifty pounds of nitrogen to 

 the acre may be lost annually in this way ; this amount 

 would have a commercial value of eight or nine dollars. 



277. Drainage records at Bromberg, — It is not 

 always the case that a manured soil loses more fertilizing 

 material than an unfertilized one. Gerlach ^ reports 

 experiments in soil tanks at the Bromberg Institute of 

 Agriculture, as the result of which five soils, when ration- 

 ally fertilized, yielded larger crops and lost in the main 

 less nitrogen and lime in the drainage water than the 

 same soils unmanured. The loss of potash was slightly 

 greater from the manured than from the unmanured soils. 

 Apparently the stimulation that the plants received 

 from the fertilizer enabled them to make such a good 

 growth that they absorbed more soluble nitrogen and 

 lime in excess of the unfertilized plants than was added 

 in the fertilizer, and nearly as much potash. 



1 Gerlach, M. Ueber die dureh Sickerwasser dem Boden 

 Entzogenen. Menge Wasser und Nahrstoffe. Illus. Landw. 

 Zeitung, 30 Jakrgang, Heft 95, Seite 871-881. 1910. Also, 

 Untersuoliungeii liber die Menge und Zusammensetzung der 

 Sickerwasser. Mitt. K. W. Inst. f. Landw. in Bromberg, Band 

 3, Seite 351-381. 1910. 



