140 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



1-2 EDWARD VII., A. 1902 

 SOIL INVESTIGATIONS. 



BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



Spallumcheen Valley. — Our attention having been directed to the desirability of 

 ascertaining the nature and possible deficiencies of the soil of this district, we obtained 

 through the kindness of Mr. Donald Graham, of Armstrong, B.C., two samples, 

 representative of the surface and subsoil, and accompanying which we received the 

 following particulars and information. Mr. Graham writes : ' The two samples 

 represent the Spallumcheen Valley as a whole. The soil was originally very rich and 

 productive. It is still strong, although certainly failing somewhat in productiveness. 

 We should like to know what it requires particularly to bring it up again, though 

 perhaps not so much to bring it up as to keep it from failing any more. No. 1 is a 

 black loam and covers this valley generally from a very slight covering in places to a 

 depth of sometimes a foot or two. It has been cultivated for the past twenty years. 

 No. 2 is the subsoil of the valley, but in places where coming to the surface it has 

 been productive, although much harder to cultivate than No. 1. In such parts of the 

 valley where there is not much (surface) loam, the soil is getting yearly harder to 

 cultivate. The sample sent was taken from beneath the black loam forwarded, at a 

 depth of a foot or more, and consequently I presume it to be richer than the clay that 

 has been reached by the plough and cropped.' 



Analysis of (air-dried) Soils. 



No. 1. No. 2. 



Surface soil Subsoil 



Moisture 3-80 3-81 



Organic and volatile matter 12 -28 7 '70 



Clay and sand (insoluble in acid) 65 -46 63-51 



Oxide of iron and alumina 15-80 21 -15 



Lime -69 -82 



Magnesia *09 1-21 



Potash -83 1-09 



Phosphoric acid '23 *16 



Soluble silica *09 -05 



Carbonic acid, &c. (undetermined) -73 '50 



100 -00 100 -00 



Nitrogen in organic matter -415 -161 



Available Constituents in Surface Soil. 



p. c. 



Potash -029 



Phosphoric acid -028 



Lime -316 



No. 1. The chemical data give evidence of a high degree of fertility. Judged by 

 the standards suggested by Dr. Ililgard, as well as those we have previously estab- 

 lished from the examination of Canadian soils, I should conclude that this soil was 

 well supplied with all the more important constituents of plant food. Indeed, it ap- 

 pears to the writer as a soil of more than average richness. 



Further, the proportion of the mineral elements potash, phosphoric acid and lime, 

 more or less immediately available, are very satisfactory, so that with a sufficient sup- 

 ply of moisture excellent crop yields should be obtained. 



Towards the maintenance of its fertility we should counsel the application from 

 time to time of an organic manure, and in this connection the growth and turnin 

 under of clover in districts where there is sufficient moisture to obtain a good ' stand,' 

 offers itself as one of the most economical methods. The growth of the clover would 

 no doubt be encouraged, and the land much improved, by a dressing of a fertilizer con- 



a 



