A Simple Barium Chloride Method for Determining Cation Exchange Capacity and Exchangeable Cations

Abstract Seventeen soil samples from acidic forest soils (Typic and Pergelic Cryorthods) and near‐neutral agricultural soils (Typic Haplaquepts) were used in an experiment to compare three methods of determining cation exchange capacity (CEC). The methods tested are the sum of cations displaced with 0.1 M BaCl 2 , and exchangeable Ba after saturation with BaCl 2 and replacement with either MgSO 4 (compulsive exchange) or MgCl 2 . The results show that when Al, Mn, and Fe are included with Ca, Mg, Na, and K in the sum of cations, this method gives the same result as do the other methods. It is recommended that this simple one‐step method be used in routine analysis of acidic soils, especially when nonagricultural lands are under investigation.