Colorado Experiment Station 
i4 
samples were taken in the small alleys left between the plots, the re¬ 
sults obtained have been checked by samples taken from the ground 
occupied by the plants. While we realized the objections against tak¬ 
ing the samples in this manner, it seemed best to do this, as we de¬ 
sired the crop quite as much as these data. In taking the number 
of samples that we deemed necessary, the injury to the crop, had 
they all been taken from the cultivated area, would have destroyed 
the results. 
The width of each section is 132 feet, and no sample was taken 
within 20 feet of either end. The samples are composite, consisting 
of three subsamples. The borings were approximately 30 feet 
apart in a line across the section. These borings were made four 
feet deep. Other borings, not in the midst of the plants, were made 
to a depth of twelve feet, unless for some reason we could not ac¬ 
complish it, which sometimes was the case, due to striking coarse 
gravel. The selection of the depth of four feet for the shallower 
borings was determined by the consideration that the wheat roots 
would probably not go to a materially greater depth. The twelve- 
foot borings were made to determine that the depth of the water 
plane was at least this deep, and to learn something of the distribu¬ 
tion of the water, also of the nitric nitrogen and its total amount. 
The following samples were collected in the spaces between 
the sections 29 April, 1913; this was three days after the grain 
was planted. This land is of course always fallow. 
MOISTURE AND NITRIC NITROGEN IN SOIL AT TIME OF PLANTING. 
Sample 
1 
Sample 2 
Nitric 
Nitric 
Nitrogen 
Nitrogen 
Depth 
Moisture 
Parts per 
Moisture 
Parts per 
Percent 
Million 
Percent 
Million 
0 
to 
6 
inches. 
. 13.37 
10.47 
13.00 
6.66 
7 
to 
12 
inches. 
. 17.08 
7.75 
17.05 
5.85 
13 
to 
24 
inches. 
. 16.20 
23.80 
16.47 
4.22 
25 
to 
36 
inches. 
. 13.89 
33.86 
14.65 
2.86 
37 
to 
48 
inches. 
. 12.47 
12.92 
14.32 
5.58 
49 
to 
60 
inches. 
. 12.69 
7.75 
16.21 
8.57 
61 
to 
72 
inches. 
. 14.22 
5.85 
17.96 
9.93 
73 
to 
84 
inches. 
. 15.90 
5.58 
17.44 
11.29 
85 
to 
96 
inches. 
. 15.57 
4.76 
17.00 
11.02 
97 
to 
108 
inches. 
. 15.78 
4.22 
14.87 
10.47 
109 
to 
120 
inches. 
. 16.78 
2.58 
14.30 
7.75 
121 
to 
132 
inches. 
. 14.00 
2.58 
15.20 
4.22 
These two sections of soil were taken less than 150 feet apart, 
but there is a great variation in the quantities of nitric nitrogen 
present and its distribution is almost reversed; the maximum quan¬ 
tities being found in the second, third and fourth foot in the first 
case and in the seventh, eighth and ninth foot in the second case. 
The supply of nitric nitrogen within reach of any cultivated plant 
