The sample when brought to the laboratory should be spread out to dry, in a room free of dust. In the winter the room should be heated to the usual temperature. The air drying should continue until there is no sensible loss of weight. The samples then are to be placed in dry, glass-stoppered glass bottles where they are kept until ready for examination. This method of keeping the samples avoids contact with ammonia or acid fumes with which a laboratory is often contaminated. =89. The Swedish= chemists[68] direct that samples which are to be used for chemical examination in the manner described below, are most conveniently brought to such a condition of looseness and humidity that the soil feels moist when pressed between the fingers without, however, sticking to the skin. To prepare the sample in this manner, spread it in a large porcelain dish or on a glass plate in a place where it is not reached by the laboratory atmosphere; stir it frequently till it assumes the mentioned humidity (if the sample when sent is too dry, moisten it with distilled water till its condition is as indicated); then pulverize carefully between the fingers and finally sift through a sieve with five millimeter holes. In this way free the sample from stones, undecayed roots and similar parts of plants, pieces of wood, and other matter strange to the soil, which remain on the sieve; mix the sample carefully and put it into a glass bottle provided with a stopper well ground in; keep it in a cool place. Samples prepared in this way will usually contain 20–30 per cent moisture; boggy soils 60–80 per cent and peat soils 50 per cent. =90. Petermann=[69] follows the method below in preparing samples of soil for analysis. The soil is gently broken up by a soft pestle and all débris if of organic nature, cut fine with scissors. About 2500 grams of this soil are passed through a one millimeter mesh sieve. The organic débris is removed by forceps, washed free of adhering earth dried at 120° and weighed. The nature of the organic débris should be noted as carefully as possible. The pebbles and mineral débris not passing the sieve are worked in a large quantity of water by decantation. They are also dried at 120° and weighed. This débris is examined mineralogically and thus some idea of the origin of the soil obtained. =91. The= various methods for the preliminary treatment as practiced by the best authorities have been somewhat fully set forth in the foregoing résumé. The common object of all these procedures is to get the soil into a proper shape for further physical and chemical examination and to determine the comparative weights of foreign bodies contained therein.