42 
Colorado Experiment Station 
nitre-area this amount rises to 2,745 pounds in the same period; 
while in the interior of the area, where the nitrates and other 
salts are very abundant, the amount of proteids formed falls 
to 720 pounds in 30 days, and may fall to zero, as we have else- 
where stated. The nitrifying: power is also high. The deport- 
ment of these samples, which can be taken as representative of 
all of these areas in this section, shows independently of the 
results obtained in our general survey, that the nitrates present 
in them are actually fonned in the soil of these areas. The 
amount of nitrogen fixed in our experiment is sufficient to fur- 
nish a great deal of nitrate if it were all nitrified, and we ob- 
serve an increase of from 100 to 170 percent in the amount of 
nitric nitrogen during the period of incubation. 
CORRELATION OF NITRIC NITROGEN IN WATERS AND 
SOIL 
We have attempted to give the correlation of the nitric 
nitrogen in the soil and water in a specific case in the following 
table. While it is not wholly satisfactory, it shows that in this 
detailed way there is a close relation between the nitrates in 
the soil ami in the water. Here the area is not large, but it 
meets the objection that the nitrates have been brought 
into the area by the water, and hence they should correlate in 
a general way, and the richness of the surface soil would have 
to be accounted for by concentration at the surface, due to 
evaporation. These suggestions involve (piestions that would 
have to be proven by the objectors before much im]iortance can 
])e attached to them. Our aim is to prove in a bigger way that 
such suggestions have no force. We are aware that the amount 
of nitric nitrogen found in different sets of samples, taken from 
any given 40 acres of land, will vary and may vary greatly ac- 
cording as the land is occupied by growing plants or is fallow. 
Further, these samples will vary with the amount of moisture 
in the soil, a slight depression in the surfac'e, only enough to 
cause a difference in the moisture, will have a decided influence 
ui)on the amount of nitric nitrogen present. Still it is a tact 
that the territory surrounding the land which we have sampled 
is average land, containing an average amount of nitric nitro- 
<ren and a large territory to the west and south of Welliuglon 
is cultivated and exceedingly fine, productive land. 
