2. The Relation between the Electrokinetic Behavior and the Base Exchange Capacity of Soil Colloids 1

INTRODUCTION Probably no line of investigation is more promising for throwing light on adsorption and exchange of bases by soil colloids than the study of their electrokinetic behavior. The relation between the two phenomena is at once shown by the way the nature of the adsorbed and exchangeable base affects the electrical charge of the soil particles. The tendency to establish a difference of potential at the interface between particles and a solution is, according to the generally accepted view, dependent upon the ability of the material to adsorb, or to dissociate from its surface, ions of one sign of charge more strongly than ions of the opposite charge. This unequal distribution of ions