MOLYBDENUM CONTENT OF SOILS

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Abstract
The avg. total Mo content as reported of soils from California, New Jersey, Russia and Argentina, and of 500 soils analyzed in the Dept. of Agric. laboratories, is sensibly constant at about 2 pp. In sharp contrast to this figure is the avg. of a number of soils from France and Hawaii which are reported to avg. more than 25 ppm. The analysis of 8 soils from France by the U. S. D. A. laboratories showed an avg. of less than 1 ppm. The Mo content of the Hawaiian samples was considerably more but still much less than 25 ppm. It is suggested that the remarkably uniform distribution of Mo in soils is the result of some biological process. The thiocyanate colorimetric process was used. It was satisfactorily checked by other laboratories using spectrographic and neutron activation methods.