A note on the determination of soil organic matter: A wet combustion method

Abstract

(1) A gasometric method for the determination of organic carbon in soils by the use of sulphuric-chromic acid mixtures at 100° C., as suggested by Watts in 1902, is described, and recommended for use in routine soil analysis. (2) The method is compared with the Kjeldahl procedure recently introduced by Robinson, McLean and Williams, and is found to give results which are generally similar, though numerically slightly lower. (3) The wet combustion method is somewhat simpler than the Kjeldahl method, but it has the disadvantage that nitrogen determinations cannot be made simultaneously, so that its usefulness in studies on soil organic matter is decidedly less.