No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 209 



firmed the judgment that this was an apple soil and not a peach 

 soil. I was not acquainted with this region. Most of the soil types 

 I had not previously identified. Pointing to an area on the soil 

 map quite unknown to me, I said to my companion: ''That is a 

 section where one might expect to find peaches growing." He 

 studied the map a few moments and replied: "That is the location 



of the large peach orchards of county. The basis I had 



for assuming that this particular type was De Kalb stony loam, and 

 hence identical with that on which grew the peaches which I had 

 visited on the previous day. 



A man who thinks he can buy any kind of a farm and make a 

 success of any kind of farming by the application of scientific 

 methods will find, after it is too late, that a large part of both 

 science and ccnimon f-ense in farming consists in the adaptation of 

 crops and methods to soil, climate and market. It makes one's 

 heart bleed to observe by what long and laborious methods men 

 have discovered or rather have been brought, often without dis- 

 covery, to raise those crops for which their soil and climate are 

 best fitted. If, as has just been shown, soils do vary in their 

 adaptability to certain crops, and that a knowledge of these adapta- 

 tions is essential to the highest success, it follows equally that the 

 fertilizer requirement and the best cultural methods vary with the 

 soil and that before any answer can be given to the numerous and 

 constantly recurring questions upon the best methods of growing 

 different crops and the fertilizers required, it is essential to have 

 a definite knowledge of tbe soil types. For something more than 

 twenty-five years and in four different states the speaker has been 

 more or less actively engaged in experimental work involving the 

 best methods, of cultivating certain standard field crops, including 

 the best methods of fertilization. A number of soil types upon 

 which he has secured direct experimental data could be counted 

 on the fingers and thumbs of both hands. Concerning these soil 

 types he would, when asked as to crop adaptation, fertilizer re- 

 quirement or cultural method, be willing to venture an opinion, 

 provided he had a history of the previous treatment of the soil. 

 There are, however, in the United States 450 soil types already 

 identified, 440 of which he knows co*mparatively nothing. 



In 1899, Professor Milton Whitney, now Chief of the Bureau of 

 Soils, began a government soil survey in Connecticut, Utah and 

 New Mexico. Up to the present time, soil surveys have been made 

 in every state except Maine and Nevada and in every territory ex- 

 cept Alaska and Hawaii. The total area surveyed amounts to 140,- 

 000 square miles or 90,000,000 acres, of which 4,000 square miLes or 

 over 2,500,000 acres have been surveyed in Pennsylvania, or about 

 9 per cent, of the total area of the State. These surveys are based 

 on the theory that the physical features of the soil, together with 

 the experience of farmers and the judgment of trained observers 

 who become as expert as tea testers or butter judges, is tbe best 

 known method of classification with reference to crop adaj)tation 

 or cultural methods. One very simple device has been brought 

 into use in connection with these soil surveys, which is not only 

 very important but also has for us a useful lesson. How many 

 farmers know anything about the soil of the different fields below 

 14—7—1908. 



