Use of undisturbed cores of surface soil for investigating leaching losses of sulphur and phosphorus

Undisturbed soil cores 10 cm long were collected using a precisely constructed 8.5-cm diameter soil sampler. To study the loss of sulphur and phosphorus from these cores due to leaching, a technique was developed for encasing the walls of the cores in a microcrystalline wax.Distilled water was applied to the surface of the cores at the rate of 2 ml/min and the loss of native plus applied sulphur and phosphorus was determined for successive 20 ml aliquots that percolated through the soil. When water equivalent to 90 mm of rainfall was added to the soil cores, losses of 2.0 kg S/ha and 0.30 kg P/ha occurred due to leaching.