Injury to vegetation and animal life by smelter wastes . ouslyaffect the soil and so indirectly injure the i^lant through the is further of the opinion that soils subjected to the action ofsulphur dioxid suffer from a reduction in the loAver forms of animaland plant life Avhich are so necessary to the series of natural changestaking place in normal soils. He is also of the opinion that suchsoils suffer a loss in bases, Avhich eventually causes them to becomeacid, as not enough bases are present to form humates Avith the humicacid. In proof of the latter point, he has taken soil sample
Injury to vegetation and animal life by smelter wastes . ouslyaffect the soil and so indirectly injure the i^lant through the is further of the opinion that soils subjected to the action ofsulphur dioxid suffer from a reduction in the loAver forms of animaland plant life Avhich are so necessary to the series of natural changestaking place in normal soils. He is also of the opinion that suchsoils suffer a loss in bases, Avhich eventually causes them to becomeacid, as not enough bases are present to form humates Avith the humicacid. In proof of the latter point, he has taken soil samples fromthe Aicinity of several smelters and foiuid that all of them containedfree humic acid. Wielers conception of this additional injurious action of sulphurdioxid on the soil has been published so recently that the writer hasnot been able to investigate the subject sufficiently to express a defi- «Mitt. d. konigl. landw. Akad., roijpelsdorf, 1869.^Thar. forstl. Jabrb., 1896, 46: 1. Bui. 1 13, Bureau of Chemistry, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. Plate INJURIOUS AMOUXTS OF SULPHUR DTOXTD. 9 nite opinion in regard to its merits. It would appear, however, fromthe work done that Wieler lays too much stress on the sulphur dioxidinjury to the soil, as compared with the injury caused by the sulphurdioxid actino- on the foliage. In support of this opinion several soilsfrom the vicinity of a smelter were tested by the author. Thesesoils were taken from forest land where certain trees were practicallyannihilated by smelter fumes. a> proved by chemical analysis, andyet all of tlie soils gave an alkaline reaction, showing that there hadevidently not been such a loss of bases as to give rise to free humicacid. On tlie Avhole. tlien. the work done undoubtedly points to the factthat sulphur dioxid injures vegetation through the leaver, but whetherit injures the soil, and so indirectlv injures the plant through theroots, is a problem which must be studied further before a definiteconclusi
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