144 Liquid Manure. 
7. No absorption of chlorine took place in this experiment. 
On looking at the composition of the soil used in this experi- 
ment, it will be noticed that pure water extracts from it more 
chloride of sodium than is usual in the case of other soils. 
This circumstance no doubt fully explains the fact that the 
liquid manure, after passing through the soil, contained even a 
little more chlorine than before. 
The amount of chlorine in the chloride of potassium and chlo- 
ride of sodium found in a gallon of liquid before filtration is 
25*78 grains. 
After filtration through soil we have 26'12 of chlorine in the 
liquid, thus showing that no chlorine whatever was abstracted 
from the liquid by the soil. 
8. Most of the phosphoric acid was taken up by this soil, but 
not so completely as by the Cirencester soil. However, the 
quantity of phosphoric acid left in the liquid after having re- 
mained in contact with the soil from a permanent pasture, is 
very trifling. We have here a proof, that soluble phosphates in 
passing even through soils poor in lime are rendered compara- 
tively speaking insoluble. 
On the whole, then, we find that this pasture-land, like the soil 
used in the preceding experiment, possesses in a high degree the 
power of absorbing from liquid manure, ammonia, potash, and 
phosphoric acid, and yielding to the liquid, lime, organic matters, 
and small quantities of other less important constituents. In 
other words, all the more valuable fertilizing ingredients of liquid 
manure were absorbed by the soil, or at all events brought into 
states of combination in which they are little soluble in water. 
Having ascertained in previous trials that the power of dif- 
ferent soils to absorb manuring matters varies greatly, I was 
anxious to institute an experiment with the same description of 
liquid manure and a very poor soil. I therefore selected a soil 
from the neighbourhood of Cirencester, which soil, although it 
occurs in the midst of the oolite formation, is greatly deficient in 
lime, and contains sand in great excess. The mechanical analysis 
of this soil gave the following results : — 
Organic matter 5'36 
Clay 4-57 
Lime -25 
Sand 89-82 
100-00 
Thus 9-lOths of the soil consisted of sand, about l-20th part 
only was clay, and l-20lh part organic matter. 
On being submitted to a detailed chemical analysis, 100 parts 
were found to contain, when dried at 212^ Fahr., — 
