THE NEW SOIL SCIENCE. 



85 



Professor Storer says in his " Chemistry in its Relation to Agri- 

 culture," page 297 : " Out of contact with carbonate of lime or other alkali, 

 a quantity of ammonium nitrate is formed, when nitrogenous matters 

 decompose in the soil. This fact has been proved by experiments, and 

 may be verified any day by testing the water in wells in crowded cities. 

 Such water will almost always be found to contain nitrate of ammonia, 

 often in large quantities." On page 319 he says : " Goppelsroeder in 

 his trials computed that 21 J lb. of nitrate of ammonia were brought to an 

 acre of land in a year by rain and snow." 



I believe it is a fact that all the combined nitrogen which comes to the 

 soil in rain falls in the form of ammonium nitrate ; and may not the 

 refreshing influence of rains on crops be due to this substance ? 



