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The Effect of removing the Soluble Humus from a Soil on its Productiveness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

William Weir
William Weir
Affiliation:
Carnegie Research Scholar.
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Extract

The decay of plant and animal residues in soils produces brown organic compounds commonly designated as humus. Some of it is soluble in dilute alkaline solutions, and agricultural chemists and investigators have often assumed that this part plays an important function in the nutrition of plants by reason of its solubility. As a result numerous methods have been devised for determining this readily soluble material, and its amount has been regarded as a measure of the fertility of the soil. Since however the amount of nitrogen in the soluble humus material is commonly 40 per cent, to 50 per cent, of the total nitrogen, the results for ordinary soils gave no better indication of potential fertility than did the total nitrogen determination itself.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , September 1915 , pp. 246 - 253
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1915

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References

page 246 note 1 “Results of Investigations on the Rothamsted Soils,” 1902, by Bernard Dyer. N. H. J. Miller's “Determinations,” p. 179.

page 246 note 2 “Recherches sur le rôle des matières organiques du sol dans les phénomènes de la nutrition des végétaux,” par M. L. Grandeau. Publication de la Station agronomique de I' Est. 1872.

page 247 note 1 “The Effect of Partial Sterilisation of Soil on the Production of Plant Food,” by Russell, E. J., and Hutchinson, H. B.. Journal of Agricultural Science, v. p. 193.Google Scholar

page 252 note 1 Journal of Agricultural Science, 1914, VI. pp. 417–451.Google Scholar