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Certain Effects of Crop Residue and Fumigant Applications on the Decomposition of an Ohio Muck Soil¹

ABSTRACT

A Rifle peat, treated with a 10 ton application of young rye and wheat straw and fumigated with nine chemical mixtures, was incubated for 15 weeks with alternate wetting and drying. A second experiment was conducted in which evolved CO₂ was collected from the same muck which had been similarly treated.

After an incubation period of 18 days, CO₂ equivalent to 45% of the carbon added as rye, was evolved by the muck soil. The rate of evolution of CO₂ was increased by CIPC treatment and slightly reduced by other fumigant treatments. There was a significant increase in the percentage of carbon of the peat during the course of the 15 week incubation, with a significantly larger carbon percentage being noted in the soils treated with Dow W-85 and CRAG 974. Mineralization of nitrogen was significantly increased as a result of rye, Shell CPB-55, Dow W-85 and CRAG 974 treatments and significantly reduced by straw and CIPC additions. The activity index of lignin was significantly decreased by CIPC and all residue treatments. The apparent polyuronide content was significantly increased by rye, Shell CPB-55, CRAG 974, and CIPC. The use of certain herbicides, fungicides and insecticides appears to have little practical value in reducing the subsidence of organic soils.

¹ Published with the approval of the Director, Ohio Agr. Exp. Sta., as Journal Paper No. 23-55. Presented before Div. IV-A, Soil Science Society of America, St. Paul, Minn. November 12, 1954.

² Research assistant; formerly Professor, now Head, Department of Soil Science, Univ. of Minn.; and Instructor, respectively, Ohio Agr. Exp. Sta. and Ohio State Univ.

Received for publication May 11, 1955.