cance; but it acquires some weight when it is observed that 
the sum of the lime and potash, including magnesia with 
the former ahcl soda with the latter, is constant within com¬ 
paratively narrow limits, i. e., they are equal to from 55.5 to 
59 or 60 per cent, of the total ash constituents of the plant 
above ground ; but this is not true of the roots to the same 
extent, nor of the leaves and stems taken separately. The 
magnesia in the roots is as a rule higher than in other parts 
of the plant; while the nearly constant sum of these four 
constituents—the two, potash and soda, rising as the lime 
and magnesia fall, or contrariwise—might be interpreted as 
indicating an intimate relation between their relative quan¬ 
tities and a partial interchange of functions. The varying 
relation of their quantities in the ash of the leaves, stems, 
and roots, obscures this to such an extent that we can say 
nothing definite about it; and for this reason we believe it 
improbable that the four per cent, more of potash in the 
Otero county sample has any direct bearing upon the lower 
percentage of magnesia in it than in the Weld county sam¬ 
ple. There was an abundance of magnesic salts presented 
to the absorptive action of the roots of the Otero county 
plants, but the fact is the salts were not taken up, nor is the 
amount of soda present in this sample apparently influenced 
by the soda salts present in the soil waters, for in the Weld 
county hay we find 1.82 pounds of soda for each 1,000 
pounds of hay, and in the Otero county 1.98 pounds. In 
other samples, grown in alkali soils, we have from two to 
three times as much soda present as we find in either of 
these samples. We have omitted some essential condition 
or we are justified in concluding that the supply of plant 
foods is so excessive in both of these soils that the plants in 
each case have taken up as much of the various ash con¬ 
stituents as they could appropriate, or that the available 
supply in the two soils was about the same and that the 
ground waters exercised no decided influence upon the 
character or amounts of these constituents taken up. Such 
a conclusion, if established, would be in harmony with the 
suggestion already made, that the alfalfa plant may feed at 
greater depths, but it does not necessarily do so, and that it 
can dispense with its long tap root and still flourish. 
The ground water met with in the above instance is 
rather a <l bitter water” than an alkaline water, even though 
there is a large portion of sodic sulphate present. Combin¬ 
ing the bases with the acids in the following order: sodium, 
calcium, magnesium, we have the following percentage 
composition of the thoroughly dry residue :—- 
