A Comparison of a Direct- and a Plate-counting Technique for the Quantitative Estimation of Soil Micro-organisms

Estimates of numbers of micro-organisms occurring in three differently manured soils, made by a direct-counting and plating technique, were compared. No correlation was found between the two methods and reasons for the large discrepancy between them are discussed. Contradictory information of the effect of external factors on soil micro-organisms can be given by the two different methods of counting.