YOUR SOILS pH— A QUALITATIVE MEASURE

Saturate the soil with water, making a thin mud slurry. Stir the slurry and then allow it to settle until about i centimeter of water appears above the soil. If this top layer of water does not appear, add more water, stir, and allow for further settling. 

Remove the bulb from the baster and stuff several cotton balls into the top end of the baster. Use the chopstick or skewer to compact the cotton toward the narrow end of the baster. Pour the water from the settled soil into the top of the baster. Attach the bulb and squeeze the liquid through the cotton and into one of the glasses. If the filtered water is still brown or cloudy, repeat the filtering, using clean cotton balls each time 

Add to the second glass as much fresh water as there is filtered water in the first glass. Add equal amounts of the pH indicator to the two glasses. Compare colors, recalling from Chapter 10 that a deeper red color means greater acidity and that green indicates alkaline, 

You might want to test soil samples from several different sites and compare your results. 

This technique is now the primary means of producing ammonia, which can be stored in high-pressure tanks as a liquid and injected into the soil. Alternatively, the ammonia can be converted to a water-soluble salt, such as ammonium nitrate, NH4N03, that is then applied to the soil either as a solid or in solution. The mining of other nutrients, such as phosphorus and potassium, still remains an important endeavor. 

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