The phenomena attending the absorption of oxygen by soils have been investigated by Déherain and Demoussy, and also by Wollny. An account of the work of the French chemists can be found in the Annales Agronomiques. Their method was to place the soils under examination in a closed tube holding about 100 c.c. and kept at constant temperature, then after a certain time to extract the gases and determine the carbon dioxide present. This was taken to be a measure of the amount of oxidation. The general results they obtained are as follows:

1. The quantity of carbon dioxide produced increases with the temperature to about 65°C., and then decreases. At higher temperatures (above 90°) it increases again.

At the time of the commencement of the Rothamsted experiments very little was known as to the amounts of combined nitrogen and other substances present in rain-water.

Marggraf (74) found nitric acid, chlorine and lime in rain-water collected during the winter of 1749–50, and, subsequently, in snow. These analyses, which are probably the earliest, were followed by those of Bergman (15) who detected the same substances both in rain and snow; whilst somewhat later de Saussure (99) noticed the presence of ammonia in the atmosphere. Between 1820 and 1825 several analyses of rain-water were made.

The present communication is intended as a contribution to the study of the capacity of soils to retain moisture in equilibrium with the atmosphere. The experimental material with which it deals consists in part of the analytical data obtained in the investigation of one hundred soils of the county of Dorset, which has been carried out for the County Council, and in part of a series of determinations made for the purpose of elucidating this problem.

The methods usually employed for estimating calcium carbonate in soil are all subject to more or less serious practical difficulties when the percentage of lime falls below 0.5.

In gravimetric methods, in which the carbon dioxide set free by acid has first to be boiled out of solution and then perfectly dried before absorption by potash, a very small weight of carbon dioxide is estimated by the gain in weight of a comparatively heavy absorption apparatus.

Since its inception in 1894 the American Soil Bureau has investigated many important problems and obtained results which are now common knowledge in this country, but its earlier Bulletins are altogether eclipsed in interest and far-reaching significance by a series recently published. In presenting an account of these it will be most convenient to set out first the purely scientific part of the work, and then the practical applications. This is the logical order and also the order in which the results were actually obtained.

The work was undertaken with the hope of establishing some connexion between the characters of soils as shown by chemical and mechanical analyses, and the quality and composition of the potatoes grown on them. As regards quality, most attention has been given to the occurrence of ‘blackening’ after cooking, especially after a second warming up, and an attempt has been made to get at the cause of this phenomenon. This defect has been often complained of by potato growers and dealers, and seriously affects the price of samples marketed for consumption in towns where the largest buyers are hotels and restaurants which demand a potato capable of keeping its colour after a second steaming. ‘Blackening’ is often associated with sandy soils heavily manured with farmyard dung or town manure, and it has been observed in tubers grown with spring dressings of kainite; concordant opinions, however, are not to be had from practical men, and in fact the defect may arise on the most widely different types of soil. In order to exclude disturbances due to variety, ‘Up to Date,’ as one of the most widely grown sorts, has alone been investigated.

The experiments described below have been carried out to confirm some results obtained by F. Löhnis, who made it appear highly probable that soil bacteria were concerned in rendering calcium cyanamide assimilable for crops. It had been supposed that the reaction of calcium cyanamide in the soil was a purely chemical one. The material used was taken from a supply of “Kalkstickstoff” received at the Rothamsted Experimental Station from the “Cyanid Gesellschaft” of Berlin early this year. Nitrogen determinations by the Kjeldahl method showed the crude fertiliser to contain 20.3 per cent, nitrogen, equal to 58 per cent, pure calcium cyanamide.

In Mr Biffeu's paper on “Mendel's Laws of Inheritance and Wheat Breeding” in the first number of this Journal reference is made on page 40 to the characters of immunity and susceptibility to the attacks of yellow rust. Mr Biffen's experiments confirm the conclusions of other observers, such as Farrer in Australia, that resistance and susceptibility to rust are inherited characters, and he shows that they follow the Mendelian laws. As the question is of enormous practical importance in the wheat growing countries this general statement requires to be made more precise. It holds for a given rust in a particular locality; it may or may not hold where the wheat is exposed to the attacks of a second species of rust or when it is transferred to another locality. Thus experience in India so far seems to show that resistance to yellow rust, Puccinia glumarum, does not imply resistance to orange rust, P. tritidna. And it is certain that the characters alter with change of locality.

The following short note gives the preliminary results of an experiment which I have commenced on a small scale on my father's farm at Field Dalling, near Holt, in Norfolk.

The object of the experiment is to follow out the inheritance of various characters in sheep. In the autumn of 1903 my father placed at my disposal 30 of his Suffolk ewes. Suffolk sheep of both sexes are characterised by black faces and the absence of horns. I determined to cross them with a Dorset ram, Dorsets having in both sexes white faces and large horns. For the present, characters other than horns and face-colour are neglected.

At the beginning of October, 1904, many agricultural chemists in England received copies of the above publication from the Secretary of the commission, Dr M. Ullmann, of Hamburg, together with a letter asking all who were willing to agree with the recommendations printed in the report to signify their assent to him. Copies of the report were circulated to members of the Chemical Committee of the Agricultural Education Association, and the recommendations were informally discussed at a meeting of the committee on Dec. 8th. It was suggested that a note should be published in order to call the attention of agricultural chemists to the subject, and facilitate further discussion.