20 
Colorado Experiment Station. 
stand of beets, and where the soil, a clay loam, was normal to all 
appearances. Except for the low ammonification produced with the 
dried blood. No. 30 behaved much the same as other niter soils, 
while No. 31 was very similar to a normal soil. 
The results follow:—No. 30, from cottonseed meal, 35.31% 
nitrogen was recovered as ammonia; dried blood 11.10%; alfalfa 
meal, 7.99%; flaxseed meal, 1.33%. 
No. 31, from cottonseed meal, 28.47%; dried blood, 20.56%: 
alfalfa meal, 2.38% ; flaxseed meal, 7.57%. 
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS. 
Niter Soils and Normal Soils. 
A careful examination of the ammonia determinations given in 
Table No. 2 points very strongly to the niter soils as being super¬ 
ior to our normal soils in ammonifying efficiency. This becomes 
more apparent when typical soils are selected from each class, al¬ 
though this property is quite evident from the results as a whole. 
While some ammonia may have resulted from a reduction of 
the nitrates present, as a matter of fact, I think that there is little 
ground for believing that this is the case. A number of these soils 
have been examined quantitatively for nitrates, and the amounts 
present are not sufficient to account for the ammonia formed. In 
the light of this fact, any hypothesis for the formation of ammonia 
based upon the reduction of nitrates appears to be without founda¬ 
tion. 
Four soils are given in Table No. 4 which have never shown 
any indication of excessive nitrates either by a brown color or by 
injury to vegetation. The soils presented in Table No. 5 were all 
collected from areas where the niter is just now beginning to be 
very active in the destruction of trees. In this connection, let me 
emphasize this point, that these samples were not taken from old 
niter areas where everything had been killed, bacteria included, but 
they were obtained either from new localities, or, in case they did 
come from the sites of well established niter spots, from the mar¬ 
gins of such areas where the accumulation of nitrates was in pro¬ 
gress rather than completed. 
Table No. 4. Ammonifying Efficiency of Normal Soils. 
Per cent, nitrogen 
recovered 
as ammonia in 7 days from: 
No. 
Source 
Character 
Cottonseed meal 
Dried blood 
Alfalfa meal Flaxseed meal 
3 
Orchard 
Sandy loam 
25.92 
18.03 
12.06 6.30 
10 
Orchard 
Clay loam 
28.33 
23.57 
4.97 8.14 
18 
Beet Field 
Gravelly clay 28.02 
39.79 
2.83 5.26 
29 
Truck patch Silt loam 
21.09 
25.08 
.73 3.11 
Table A r o. 5. 
Ammonifying Efficiency of Niter Soils. 
Per cent, nitrogen 
recovered 
as ammonia in 7 days from: 
No. 
Source 
Character 
Cottonseed meal 
Dried blood 
Alfalfa meal Flaxseed meal 
11 
Orchard 
Clay loam 
47.58 
51.17 
13.59 12.15 
14 
Orchard 
Clay loam 
47.73 
52.23 
16.56 3.99 
16 
Orchard 
Sandy loam 
47.10 
52.64 
13.69 .21 
21 
Orchard 
Clay loam 
47.87 
49.16 
12.22 .77 
26 
Orchard 
Sandy loam 
50.85 
44.76 
26.44 9.53 
