ANALYSIS OF SOIL FROM OTERO COUNTY. 
Insoluble. 
Potash. 
Soda. 
Lime. 
Magnesia. 
Ferric oxide. 
Alumina. 
Phosphoric acid. 
Sulphuric acid. 
Chlorine. 
Carbonic acid. 
Moisture, at no degrees 
Loss by ignition. 
Per cent. 
. .7772 
• • -25 
.II 
•• T -55 
.. .11 
.. 2.93 
.. 4.70 
.90 
■ • 45 
.. .04 
.. 1.01 
. 1.66 
• 3-7 o 
100.45 
This sample does not represent the soil to a greater 
depth than four and a half feet; while the preceding ones, 
together, represent the Weld county soil to a depth of 
eleven and a quarter feet. The twenty-one inches of Weld 
county soil contain 11,208 pounds of phosphoric acid to the 
acre ; while the Otero county soil, calculated to the same 
depth, contains 55,125 pounds of this acid, or nearly five 
times as much. The ratio of the potash in the two soils is 
markedly in favor of the Weid county soil, it containing in 
the first; twenty-one inches 37,362.5 pounds ; while the Otero 
county sample contains 15,312.5 pounds. The amounts of 
these substances removed by the respective crops bear no 
such relation to each other as the total amounts of them 
bear to one another. The amount of phosphoric acid re¬ 
moved by one thousand pounds of hay from the Weld 
county soil is 4.43 pounds ; while the amount removed from 
the Otero county soil, by an equal weight of hay, was 3.58 
pounds. With a total quantity of phosphoric acid, five times 
greater than that present in the Weld county soil, the 
plants have taken up a little more than three-quarters as 
much of it. The potash removed by a thousand pounds of 
hav from the Weld county soil was found to be 23.69 pounds; 
while from the Otero county soil, with less than one-half as 
much total potash, this weight of hay. removed 27.197 
pounds. The magnesia, it was hoped, might give a clue as 
to the amount of food brought up from the lower portion of 
the soil, as we have the ground water quite heavily laden 
with.salts of this base; but an examination of the results 
obtained failed to show any such relation as might even be 
suggestive that these solutions had anything whatever to 
