No. 7. Department op agriculture. an 



chanical composiUou, determiued as indicated in above table, the 

 following soil types have been recognized running from the coarsest 

 to the finest: coarse sand, medium sand, fine sand, sandy loam, fine 

 sandy loam, loam, silt loam, clay loam, sandy loam, silt clay and 

 clay. Thus we have Norfolk coarse sand, Norfolk coarse sandy 

 loam, Norfolk sand, Norfolk fine sand, Norfolk sandy loam, Norfolk 

 fine sandy loam, Norfolk loam and Norfolk silt loam; or Hagers- 

 town sandy loam, Hagerstown loam, Hagerstown silt loam, Hagers 

 town clay loam and Hagerstown clay. It will be noticed that a 

 particular soil series does not necessarily include all the specific 

 soil types. Thus the Norfolk series lacks the clay types 

 while the Hagerstown series lacks the sandy typ€s. In 

 addition to the above, we may have, due to the occurrence of stone 

 or gravel, stony or gravelly soils. Thus there are Norfolk gravel 

 and Hagerstown stony loam. 



This matter of soil types is of special importance in Pennsylvania 

 because of the great variety of soils in the State. Up to the 

 present time there have been recognized and surveyed in the United 

 States sixty soil series, thirty-three in the humid section and twenty- 

 seven in the arid section. Of the thirty-three in the humid section 

 of the United States eleven have been found in Pennsylvania. In 

 the United States 450 types have been recognized. Forty-five of 

 these have been found in Pennsylvania, although the state has 

 only been partially surveyed. For twenty-five years fertilizer ex- 

 periments have been conducted at the Pennsylvania Agricultural 

 Experiment Station on Hagerstown clay loam in Centre county at 

 approximately 1,200 feet above sea level. The Hagerstown series 

 is perhaps the most productive series in the State, and the Hagers- 

 town clay loam probably the most productive type of this series. 

 In this sense the Hagerstown clay loam is probably the most im- 

 portant soil in the State, but the total area covered by this series 

 is comparatively small. If a man writes the station for informa- 

 tion concerning the fertilizer requirement of his land, these ex- 

 periments conducted faithfully during a quarter of a century can 

 be used in answering his inquiry if his land is Hagerstown clay 

 loam, but if it is Volusia silt loam the answer must be different. 

 The first step, therefore, in the systematic study of the soils of 

 Pencsyivauia is a soil survey. This has been under way now for 

 eight years and 2,013,760 acres have been surveyed^ including, 

 as previously stated, eleven soil series and forty-five soil types. 

 In these surveys the maps have been made on the scale of one 

 inch to the mile. It is believed that after a few more dietailed 

 surveys of this sort are made, particularly in the western half 

 of Pennsylvania, it will be possible to make a reconnoisance of 

 the State mapping the soil at the rate of six miles to the inch. 

 It ia believed that the work could be completed in two years. After 

 this has been done it will then be possible to make plot tests on 

 different soil types which may be expected to answer certain ques- 

 tions. It may then be possible to interpret intelligently those 

 which have already been made. The Pennsylvania Experiment 

 Station is prepared to conduct, with the co-operation of farmers, 

 such plot tests and thus to study the crop adaptation of soil types. 

 I do not consider that the Pennsylvania Experiment Station is 



