THE BBOADBALK WHEAT soils. 
In L893 there was an underaverage crop and an underaverage rain- 
fall, and therefore less than average utilization of nitrates and prob- 
ably later and less complete nitrification, and certainly less than aver- 
age loss by drainage and downward percolation. The crop of the 
following year was a comparatively large out — far above average — and 
evidently gol the benefit of much nitrogen thai would after an ordi- 
nary season have been lost. 
Most of the unused nitrates are seen to be in the second depth. 
In the surface depths the poorest plats — excluding, of course, plat .">, 
which is placed in the table for comparison only — are plals LOa, LOb, 
and 11. The last-named, which, with ammonium salts, receives only 
Superphosphate without any alkaline salts, gives smaller crops than 
plats L2, L3, and 14, and therefore contains less crop residue. Plats 
12, 13, and 14, though utilizing more nitrogen, have more nitrates 
Bear the surface, owing probably to more active nit riticat ion. The 
most interesting results, however, in this table are those showing the 
nitric nitrogen contained in the third and subsequent Lower depths 
of plats LI, L2, 13, and 14. 
Unfortunately there are n<» samples of the fourth and lower depths 
for plats LOa and b>b, but we have samples of eight depths for plats 
ll, L2, 13, and 14. As we enter t he t bird, and more especially as we 
descend into the fourth and Lower depths of these plats, we are at 
once struck with the very much Larger quantity of nitrates found on 
plat 11, the most poorly yielding plat of 1 he series, viz, the plat which, 
though receiving the same nitrogen and phosphates a> the others, 
receives no alkalies. We find, despite the fact thai we are below the 
level of the drainpipes in the fourth depth, ll. •*>•*, pounds of nitric 
nitrogen per acre in plat 11, while the other plats average only about 
6 pounds. In the tilth depth plat 11 again shows us 8.60 pounds 
against an average of about "> pounds in the others; in the sixth 
depth, .").():? pounds, as against an average of about 4.»'> pounds in the 
others; in the seventh depth, 4.48 pounds, as against an average of 
4.7 pounds in the others; and in the eighth depth, 6.11 pounds, as 
against an average of nearly 5 pounds in the others. Altogether 
below the level of the drainage (27 inches) we have in the five depths 
35.87 pounds of nitric nitrogen in plat 11 against an average of iio.44 
pounds in the other plats, a difference of L0.43 pounds. This very 
marked difference concords with the fact that plat l L, though receiv- 
ing, Like the others, abundant dressings of phosphates as well as 
ammonium salts, receives no potassium, sodium, or magnesium salts 
and consequently utilizes far less of the applied nitrogen. 
In fact, in the ten years from L882 to L891 the nitrogen annually 
removed in the oops of plat 11 was, on the average, 11 pounds per 
acre per annum less than on plats 12, 13, and 14. 
When we regard plats L2, L3, and 11 we see that in their lower 
depths the least quantity of nitric nitrogen is in plat 13, which 
