200 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Let me caution jou, however, not to dwell too heavily upon the 

 results here presented. 



The productiveness of a given soil in a particular locality is largely 

 determined by the state of availability of the more important plant 

 nutrients. These states of availability depend in part upon the 

 original character of the soil, but are also in very large measure 

 determined by the methods of culture, systems of rotation and fer- 

 tilizer treatment used on the farm. For this reason methods in- 

 tended to determine the present condition of soils afford results 

 which are probably less generally applicable to the whole region 

 in which the soil type prevails, and where the same topograph- 

 ical positions are invoh'ed, than do the results obtained by methods 

 which aim to determine the permanent agricultural resources of the 

 land. It is hoped that the fragmentary data above presented may 

 be of some use in your work as agricultural instructors in the sev- 

 eral districts of the State. It is also my hope that the foregoing 

 talk may make more clear to you the present condition of soil chem- 

 istry, and impress upon you the desirability of a careful survey of 

 Pennsylvania soils with respect to their chemical as well as to their 

 physical properties. 



WHERE CROP YIELDS ARE CURTAILED BY LACK OF PHOS- 

 PHORIC ACID AND LIME IN THE SOIL. 



Br MR ALVA Agbe. State College, Pa. 



The subject of soil productivity interests every land owner. In 

 the cases of the vast majority of land owners the producing power 

 of the farm determines for each one the amount of his income, his 

 freedom from financial burden and his ability to surround his 

 family with the comforts and luxuries that every man desires to 

 give to his loved ones. In agriculture the vital problem is the main- 

 tenance and increase of soil fertility. 



There are a few striking facts in our agriculture today that bear 

 on this problem, and that are within the knowledge of all observ- 

 ing farmers, and it seems to me an amazing thing that some of us 

 have not appreciated tlieir relation to each other, and have not 

 learned the pr;ictical lesson that they teach. I desire to state some 

 of these facts which stand isolated in the view of many, and then to 

 draw the conclusions that cannot be escaped. While ultra-scientific 

 men may issue bulletins denying the principles in soil fertility that 

 once w^ere regarded as elementary, and while there are doubts, con- 

 fusion and lack of knowledge that cause many a scientist to guard his 

 words with Ihe extremest <-are when dealing with the seemingly 

 simplest phases of the problem of making soils rich, there are some 

 farm practices that bring the answer in the field regardless of all 

 academic proof that the practices are credited with results they 

 do not produce. 



