The Fixation of Nitrogen. 45 
have shown burning to a very serious extent. A little to the east 
of this place is a piece of ground which some one has tried to 
bring under cultivation. The piece of land is not very large and 
lies between two ridges and beside the public road. An open drain 
was run north and south through the center of it, from the north 
end of which another open drain was run parallel to an irrigating 
ditch across the north and northeast end of the east half, to inter¬ 
cept leakage from the ditch. These ditches were not well cared 
for and their efficiency was greatly reduced owing to the indifference 
of the owner. A large irrigating canal runs on the east side of the 
public road and is six or more feet below it, while this piece of 
land lies on the west side of the road. 
The west half of this land was planted to oats last spring, 
1910. The condition of the field on September 13, is shown in the 
upper figures, Plates III and IV. That of Plate IV shows the oats 
that survived. The photograph conveys a good idea of the size and 
sharp delimitation of the piece, also of the rank growth made by the 
plants, they being well above the waist of a medium sized person. 
The photograph, however, does not convey any idea of the extremely 
dark green color of the plants. The other figure, Plate III, shows the 
condition of the rest of the field, the western portion, and the irrigat¬ 
ing creases, also that the land was entirely bare, there being only 
a very few Russian thistles that had survived. These photographs 
show in a most excellent manner the brown stained margins on the 
spaces between the creases, even the slight encrusting and puffed 
up condition which is very characteristic of extreme cases of this 
trouble, can be recognized in Plate III. These pictures show 
that the ground immediately back of this, north of it, is higher 
and some of it is uncultivated, while other portions of it support 
old and healthy orchards. The pictures also convey a fairly good 
idea of the length of the field, as the public road runs only a few 
feet, perhaps thirty, this side of the picture. The length may be 
four hundred feet. I did not measure it but I think that it cannot 
be more than this. The north and south ditch runs a little to the 
east of Plate IV, and the irrigating ditch at least six feet 
deeper than the lower end of this field runs within forty or fifty feet 
of its south side. I have already given too many details relative to 
this piece of ground. The growth of the oats on ground which 
is neither higher nor lower, neither wetter nor drier than the rest, 
indicates that it is really not a question of seepage and drainage. 
This ground was not very wet at any time that I have seen it. It 
was wet enough to justify the ditching, and the results have been 
disappointingly small. I interpret this as being in harmony with 
many other observations, that while this land would be considered 
as seeped land the chief difficulty is not the water but the bacterial 
flora of the soil. 
