394 
Eeport of the Chemist of the 
In lysimeters, owing to the increased water absorbed by the soil, 
the good drainage, and the consequently diminished evaporation ratio, 
the movement of the water is in general downwards, and carries with 
it the soluble matters of the soil, which finally are lost in the drainage. 
In this respect a lysimeter acts as a leach which must eventually 
remove all soluble plant food from the soil, provided that the rainfall 
is sufficient to cause a moderate drainage. That this is what has 
occurred in our lysimeters is clearly shown by the amount of soluble 
nitrogen compounds annually removed in the drainage water. No. 1 
in sod, is exceptional in this respect, but with this lysimeter the 
drainage has been generally small, and has mostly occurred during 
and immediately after storms, indicating that it was really flood water 
which had run directly through holes in the soil. In Nos. 2 and 3 the 
leaching is decidedly marked, and the gradual increase in the amount 
of- nitrogen lost, confirms the opinion that the loss of nitrogen is due 
to this action. The comparatively small loss for 1887 may be due 
either to the small drainage or to previous partial exhaustion of soluble 
matters from the soil. The enormous loss of nitrogen in the drainage 
waters of Nos. 2 and 3 is in itself presumptive evidence that the indi- 
cations of the lysimeter are misleading when applied to natural soils. 
This loss is more each year per acre than would be replaced by a ton 
of dried blood or of nitrate of soda, and is more than would be removed 
from the soil by twenty average crops of timothy hay. It would be 
absurd to apply these figures to ordinary soils, as such a drain upon 
its resources would speedily make any land sterile. 
Although lysimeter results are greatly influenced by climate and 
the amount and distribution of the rainfall, the agencies described 
above are sufficiently operative in all localities to render figures 
derived from ordinary lysimeters useless for generalization. 
In a new lysimeter, described in the report of the horticulturist, an 
attempt is made to eliminate one source of the discrepancies mentioned, 
by maintaining an artificial water-table at a known level. This 
lysimeter will give the amount of evaporation and drainage under 
known conditions, and may aid in the discovery of some law respecting 
the movement of soil water. 
Tables are appended giving the rainfall, drainage ' and chemical 
examinations for each of the lysimeters for 1887, and a summary of 
results since January, 1883: 
