Sir.E.John Russell.Director of the Rothamsted Experimental Station at Harpenden.England. Speaking before the Sixth International Botanical Congress,called attention to the fact that plants,constantly sucking upward the water that tricles and oozes downward through the ground.profoundly affect the character of the soil in which they grow.In the eastern part of England the water drainage through cultivated soils is only about half that through uncultivated soils.The whole nature of the soil is affected .and the marked differences between feebly and strongly leached-out soils turn very largely on the intensity of action of plant roots in removing the soil water.Associated with this removal of water is also a transfer of mineral substances and nitrates from the subsoil to the aerial parts of the plant.Calcium.pottasium and silica in particular are lifted in quantity to the leaves and stems:when the plants die they fall back on the surface of the soil.
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