Most of the soil investigations in this country have been conducted at Rothamsted or other parts of South Britain and the soils examined have been chiefly those overlying the stratified rocks of the southern half of England. These, however, are by no means typical of the whole of Britain and research is needed into soils found extensively in Scotland and other parts of Britain which differ greatly in their origin, nature and properties from those which have hitherto been the chief subjects to which British investigators have devoted attention. The various agricultural colleges are taking up the study of the soils of their respective districts, and when the Farm of Craibstone was acquired as an Experiment Station by the North of Scotland College, a series of soil investigations was immediately commenced.

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1. Craibstone soil—a glacial drift soil which has not undergone very profound weathering and is free from calcium carbonate—has a considerable absorptive power for ammonia from a solution of sulphate of ammonia.2. It was found possible to make a mechanical analysis of a large quantity of this soil without the use of acid and alkali, and although the separation into fractions was by no means perfect, a very fair comparison was obtained of the absorptive capacities of the different fractions.3. The absorptive power per unit weight of the fractions, as would be naturally expected, increases with the decrease in size of the particles, reaching a maximum in the case of “clay.”4. “Fine silt” and “silt” have also a high absorptive power. This may be partly due to the presence of organic matter, but allowing for that, these fractions have a high power of absorption.5. It was not the object of these experiments to draw any detailed conclusions as to the relation between surface and absorptive power, but it seems probable, from the results obtained, that the absorptive power is not determined by surface alone, and that the chemical composition of the fractions has an influence on the absorptive power.