44 VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



vaded and their methods used in studying the origin of soils 

 and their chemical and physical properties and conditions. 



Methods have been perfected for surveying and mapping 

 the areas of the different soil formations and soil maps are 

 now being prepared similar to the geological maps, but show- 

 ing the area and distribution of the soils. The influence of 

 the chemical and physical properties of the soils thus mapped 

 on the character and development of vegetation is very strik- 

 ing and is going to be one of the most important helps that the 

 intelligent farmer could wish to have. Many an area will now 

 be relieved of the suspicion of poor farming when it is shown 

 that the conditions are not suited to the crops raised, and 

 many an area so conditioned will be put to better use and find 

 much more prosperous lines in other crops better adapted to 

 the soil. 



In the arid West the soil survyes include the mapping of 

 the alkali conditions. The maps show the depth of standing 

 water and the necessity for underdrainage. They show the 

 accumulation and distribution of alkail salts, indicate what 

 correctives, if any, can be used, and show where underdrain- 

 age is necessary to reclaim abandoned lands or to protect 

 against further injury from seepage waters and from alkali. 

 The investigations show that much of the trouble in the rise 

 of alkail comes from the seepage from irrigation canals, rath- 

 er than from over-irrigation bv the farmers. The soil inves- 

 tigations in connection with the alkali work are of the great- 

 est interest and of great value to the irrigation farmer. 



AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 



The science of chemistry has been particularly active in 

 aiding scientific agriculture during the past three decades. 

 Since the time of Liebig the science of agrcultural chemstry 

 has been raised on a firm foundation of scientific fact, so that 

 the progress that has been attained is a real one and not sim- 

 ply an evolution of error. The most striking feature of this 

 progress has been the development of artificial fertilization of 

 plants. Practically the whole svstem of commercial fertiliza- 

 tion, as far as its preparation and application are concerned, is 

 the product of the past thirty years. During that period the 

 methods of preparing and applying the vast deposits of phos- 

 phates have been discovered and elaborated. Thirty years 

 ago the presence of natural phosphates in the United States 

 was scarcely known. At the present time it is known that 

 this country possesses the most extensive depoists of natural 

 phosphates in the world and the industry of mining, prepar- 

 ing and marketing those phosphates has become an enormous 

 one. The service which chemistry has rendered to agricul- 



