44 
Colorado Experiment Station 
NITRATES ARE NOT DERIVED FROM ANY DEEP SP^ATED 
SOURCE 
Another conceivable source of these nitrates is the waters 
below the surface. While water is found at various depths at 
different places the country is not blessed with an abundance 
of springs which might bring the nitrates to the surface from 
a subterranean source either deep seated or shallow. Our sur- 
vey of the well-waters answers this question fully. The waters 
from deep wells are free from nitric nitrogen. The greatest 
depths at which water carrying nitric nitrogen has been ob- 
tained is G5 feet and this is very unusual. On the other hand 
I have given instances in preceding publications to show that 
the nitric nitrogen in ground- waters was derived from the sur- 
face and not from below — in one case, water at a depth of 6 
feet was heavily charged with nitric nitrogen, while water from 
the same land, but obtained at a depth of 16 feet, carried none. 
This was not only in the same land but in the same part of that 
land, in fact from the same hole at different depths. In this 
case the water from a depth of 6 feet carried 14,230 p.p.m. of 
total solids of which 3.0 percent or 426.9 p.p.m. was sodic ni- 
trate- The water from the d^pth of 16 feet and out of the under- 
lying shale carried 22,100.00 p.p.m. total solids and no nitric 
nitrogen. (Bulletin 178, p. 64.) The table just given shows a 
sample of ground-water and one from a 280-foot well. This 
well was started in this bad ground and enters the shale a short 
way from the surface. The ground water (2 samples) carries 
7,870 and 8,725 p.p.m. total solids with 309.0 and 296.8 p.p-in. 
nitric nitrogen. The well-water carries 4,732 p.p.m. total solids 
and no nitric nitrogen. In another case shown by the same 
table we have in the ground-water 7,462. ]).p.m. total solids with 
1^1.6 p.p.m. of nitric nitrogen and in the well-water 4,044.0 
p.p.m. total solids with no nitric nitrogen. This well is 400 feet 
deep and about 500 feet from the surface well. The deepest 
well that we found in this section was 700 feet deep; the water 
carried 518 p.p.m. total solids and no nitric nitrogen. Another 
well carried 10,541.0 p.p.m. total solids and 142.0 p.p.m. nitric 
nitrogen. A well just west of this and at a lower level carries 
2,036 p.p.m. total solids and 1.6 p.p.m. nitric nitrogen. In (his 
case again there is not a general deep seated source of this ni- 
trate and it must be an accumulation from the surface though 
an unusual one. 
We find then that no water from any deep w(41 carries 
niti'ic nitrogen and a deep seated source of these citrates is 
disproven by this eridence. To the best of my knowledge this 
