A procedure for the rapid and accurate determination of water‐extractable soil nitrates is described. Use of this procedure resulted in quantitative recovery of nitrates added to soil. Reproducibility of results was high, with nitrate‐nitrogen in 40 soil samples determined on successive days differing by a maximum of 4 ppm with 33 determinations differing by 2 ppm or less. Comparison with a phenoldisulfonic acid method on 513 soil samples had a maximum difference of 7 ppm with a majority of determinations having a difference of 4 ppm or less.