33 
The Fixation oe Nitrogen. 
ANALYSES 
XXXIX 
XL 
Water-Soluble 
Water-Soluble 
laboratory 
laboratory 
No. 880 
No. 874 
Nov. 2, 1909 
Nov. 2, 1909 
Percent 
Percent 
Calcic sulfate . 
52.204 
Calcic chlorid . 
Magnesic sulfate . 
6.991 
10.594 
Magnesic chlorid. 
Magnesic nitrate . 
. 5 210 
Potassic chlorid . 
5.199 
Potassic nitrate . 
. 6 809 
Sodic chlorid . 
1.276 
22.981 
Sodic nitrate . 
Iron and Aluminic oxid. 
0.393 
Manganic oxid . 
Trace 
Silicic acid . 
Loss . 
0.362 
100.000 
100.000 
This is perhaps the most surprising occurrence of this diffi¬ 
culty that I have to record. This land is most favorably located, 
but it is not the only piece of land affected in this manner in this 
section. The owner told me that he had removed an old orchard 
principally because the varieties were poor, and that he had not 
been able to get the young trees to live. In the case of No. 880 
we have been compelled to unite a part of the nitric acid with 
magnesium and potassium and we have 52.86 percent of the total 
soluble salts composed of nitrates, giving us the top inch and a 
half, the depth to which the sample was taken, 14,610 pounds to 
the acre—7.3 tons, or 116,880 pounds of nitrates to the acre-foot 
of such soil—58.4 tons. 
Sample No. 874 represents the next succeeding foot with 
5.7 tons per acre-foot. We actually have in the top thirteen and 
one-half inches of this land 13 tons of nitrates, principally nitrate 
of soda. This land is wholly barren. There is a cellar at the 
edge of this piece of land, six feet deep, the bottom of which is in 
the coarse gravel previously mentioned. In March, 1911, the 
bottom of this cellar was not only dry but actually dusty when 
stirred. 
Most of the pear trees set in the spring of 1910 died before 
mid-summer and but few survived till the spring of 1911. The 
pear tree seems to be very tolerant of these salts, especially so when 
once established. y 
Case NO. 11— This orchard is located near a ditch. The 
trees were attacked in July or August and died outright. The 
land had been heavily manured and when I visited it, it had just 
been irrigated and was, of course, wet on the surface.’ We duo* a 
hole five and a half feet deep and found no signs of any excess 
of water. The soil is a sandy loam. I took two samples, one of 
