BULLETIN 169, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
nation by the Bureau of Soils of the United States Department of 
Agriculture shows the presence of the usual soil-forming minerals. 
The chemical and mechanical analyses are given in Table I. 
Table I. — Chemical and mechanical analyses of the nursery soils at Halsey, Nebr., and 
Morrisville, Pa. 
[The soil samples were taken from the upper 6 inches; subsoil from depths of 15 inches at Halsey and 12 
inches at Morrisville.) 7 
Analyses. 
Chemical constituents: 
MnO 
FejOs 
AljOs 
K 2 
P 2 6 
CaO 
Total salts by bridge 
N 
C0 2 (from carbonates) 
Ignition loss (two determinations averaged) 
Lime requirements (CaO) per acre pounds 
Mechanical constituents (size of particles): 
Fine gravel, 2 to 1 mm 
Coarse sand, 1 to 0.5 mm 
Medium sand, 0.5 to 0.25 mm 
Fine sand, 0.25 to 0.1 mm 
Very fine sand, 0.1 to 0.05 mm 
Silt, 0.05 to 0.005 mm 
Clay, 0.005 mm. and finer 
Percentage of soil. 
Halsey. 
0.24 
3.08 
14.93 
4.48 
Trace. 
.86 
.21 
.07 
None. 
2.41 
2,450 

3.0 
9.5 
58.1 
21.0 
6.5 
2.1 
Morris- 
ville. 
0.21 
1.60 
8.72 
1.68 
Trace. 
2.23 
.39 
.03 
None. 
2.93 
1,750 
1.0 
10.9 
16.1 
28.9 
19.2 
18.5 
5.5 
Percentage of sub- 
soil. 
Halsey. 
0.18 
2.85 
14.95 
.80 
.48 
3.79 
None. 
.55 
2,450 

3.5 
15.4 
61.3 
17.5 
1.5 
Morris- 
ville. 
0.19 
1.30 
6.20 
1.88 
.11 
1.35 
.08 
.05 
None. 
1.96 
1,750 
0.5 
8.6 
13.4 
30.5 
23.5 
18.1 
5.2 
The "wilting coefficient, determined by the indirect method of Briggs 
and Shantz, 1 was 3.42 per cent for the surface soil and 1.5 per cent 
for the subsoil at Halsey, and 4.92 per cent for the surface soil and 
4.73 per cent for the subsoil at Morrisville. The samples examined 
from Halsey were taken from 10 different points in the nursery, 
while the samples from Morrisville represent three different points. 
EXPERIMENTS AT HALSEY, NEBR. 
Experiments at the nursery at Halsey have been carried on in 
cooperation with the United States Forest Service during the past 
five years. Mr. Kobert D. Hands assisted the writer during the year 
in which most of the data were secured, and Messrs. R. G. Pierce and 
Fred R. Johnson, of the Forest Service, rendered material assistance 
in the work. 
DISINFECTANTS USED. 
Part of the sulphuric acid used in the following experiments was 
C. P. (chemically pure), but most of it was a clear commercial grade, 
the acid used in most of the work here reported having a specific 
gravity of 1.84 and that used for the latest work a specific gravity of 
1 Briggs, L. J., and Shantz, H. L. The wilting coefficient for different plants and its indirect determi- 
nation. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry Bulletin 230, 1912. 
