3 o The Colorado Experiment Station 
taken as the maximum amount that occurs in ordinary soils, and I 
doubt whether this quantity is usually maintained throughout ie 
season. In samples taken to a depth of two inches, October 7,I 9 ° 9 > 
we found, in a fallow spot in the beet field 12 p. p. m m a fallow 
portion of another plot 22.5 p. p. m. and m the space between the 
beet plots P. p. m. On October 18 we again found 35 p. p. m. m 
a fallow spot in the beet field. On the other hand, samples of soil 
taken on the same dates from among the beets, 1. e., between the 
beets in the row, showed from 1 to 4 p. p. ni., and samples taken 
between the rows showed only from 1 to 5 p. p. m., but 111 the space 
between the rows which happened to be devoid of plants, was fallow, 
we found 28 p. p. m. We found that in land which had been 
cropped to grain from 2 to 8 p. p. m., in a cornfield 8 p. p. m., 
in an oat field 1 p. p. m., in virgin soil from the prairies 8 p p. m. 
Strain we gave the nitric nitrogen found in 46 samples of soils 
taken from as many different beet fields. These samples were kindly 
furnished me by the Holly Sugar Co. and were taken to a depth of 
six inches, October 1-15, The nitric nitrogen ranged in these 
samples from a trace to 160 p. p. m. Seventeen of the forty-six 
samples contained materially above 8 p. p. m. of nitric nitrogen, 
do not know where these samples were taken, in the rows, between 
the rows or at the edge of the field and for this reason I obtained 
another set of 54 samples taken from 18 fields, or three from each 
field as follows—in the rows of beets, between the rows and m the 
turn row. These samples were taken six inches deep. Of the 18 
samples taken in the beet rows four of the samples showed the pres¬ 
ence of more than 8 p. p. m., but did not exceed 15 P- P- m -> one 
sample showed 50 p. p. m.; of those taken between the rows, five 
sanmles showed more than 8 p. p. m., with 30 p. p. m. as the maxi¬ 
mum : of those taken in the turn rows, eight samples showed more 
than 8 p. p. m., with the maximum of 140 p. p. m. These data 
were collected to show in the first place how much nitric nitrogen 
we may consider as normally occurring in our soils, i. e., in good 
soil and under fair conditions. Our farm samples fully meet these 
conditions, the weather had been fair and no irrigating water had 
been applied for weeks, so that the nitric nitrogen had not been 
leached out, and as the fallow ground was covered with a thick 
layer of fine earth capillary action was minified and our samples give 
us. T believe, reliable results. They show that at this place, land in 
crops other than alfalfa contains less than 8 p. p. m., and that well 
conditioned, good soil, lying fallow, acquires nitric nitrogen in 
quantities very much in excess of this, up to 35 p. p. m. having been 
obtained. In the samples from the Arkansas Valley, which repre¬ 
sented cultivated, and at least average fields, we found a maximum 
of 160 p. p. m. in the soil collected in October and taken to a depth 
