The Fixation of Nitrogen. 85 
are common yields. The standards adopted and our analytical data 
are not in perfect harmony with the common facts of actual prac¬ 
tice. This has been observed by others and is not new. Trained 
and practical agricultural chemists who have had years of exper¬ 
ience in this state, have stated to me that they had not observed 
any indication that our crops ever suffer from the lack of nitrogen, 
and they were perfectly well aware of the fact that according to 
analytical results many of our lands are deficient, or at best only 
moderately well supplied with this element. 
In regard to the ratio of nitric nitrogen to the total nitrogen 
in soils the statement that it, the nitric nitrogen, seldom amounts 
to 5 percent of the total is attributed to Warington. This may be 
taken as a maximum. There is recorded in Bulletin 126 of the 
Kentucky Experiment Station, 24 analyses of soils in which both 
the total and the nitric nitrogen have been determined, which show 
that the nitric nitrogen varies from 0.0 to 1.263 percent of the 
total nitrogen present. The total nitrogen in the sample showing 
the largest amount of nitric nitrogen was 0.238 percent of the soil. 
The land from which this soil sample was taken had been set to 
tobacco which had failed. The authors, A. M. Peter and S. D. 
Averitt make the statement: “The effect of the large amount of 
nitrate was evident in the better growth of the wheat where the 
tobacco failed." In another case in which the nitric nitrogen 
amounted to 0.826 percent of the total nitrogen the authors make 
a similar statement. “The larger proportion of nitrate where the 
tobacco was poor is to be noted here, as before, and the effect of 
this upon the wheat was very apparent.” The authors consider 
these quantities of nitric nitrogen as large and apparently as in¬ 
jurious enough to account for the bad condition of the tobacco. 
In our Laboratory No. 697 we find the total nitrogen equal to 
0.080 percent of the soil, which is probably a little too low, while the 
nitric nitrogen in the same sample equalled 0.0377 percent of the 
soil or 47.07 percent of the total nitrogen. This was a sample 
taken to a depth of twelve inches. It is a very bad soil but not 
nearly so rich as some samples with which we have met, especially 
in the cases of surface samples. In Case No. 6 the surface foot of 
soil, which proved to be an exceptional one, as it was poorer in 
nitric nitrogen than the second foot, the nitric nitrogen constituted 
1.86 percent, in the second foot 1.9 percent and in the third foot 
55.3 percent. This is almost the only instance in which we find 
more nitric nitrogen in the deeper samples than in the shallower 
ones. The surface soil is not included in the sample designated as 
the first foot. The nitric nitrogen in the surface portions of this 
soil, taken perhaps thirty feet north of where these soil samples 
were taken, amounts to 0.053 percent of the air-dried soil or 530 
parts per million. The total nitrogen in this surface sample was 
