482 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



INTEODUCTION 



The fertility of the soil is the greatest of our natural resources. It is highly 

 desirable, therefore, that we have at our disposal all the information con- 

 cerning our soils that it is practicable to gather. The location of different 

 soil classes or kinds of soil, the nature of their subsoils, the drainage condi- 

 tions and their agricultural possibilities should be known. Moreover the 

 amount of the several elements of plant-food and the lime requirement of 

 the different soils should be determined so that they may be most intelli- 

 gently managed. 



Certain members of the Soils Section of the Michigan Agricultural College 

 Experiment Station prior to May 1st, 1920, did a great deal of general or 

 reconnaissance soil classifying and mapping. Samples of the representative 

 soils of several areas were collected and analyzed for their plant-food con- 

 stituents, observations made on the agricultural conditions and reports 

 written. Since that date the Soils Section of the Michigan Agricultural 

 College Experiment Station entered into a cooperative agreement with 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils, whereby the soils 

 of the State are to be classified and mapped in detail. Under this agree- 

 ment the salaries and expenses of the field men are shared equally by 

 these organizations. In addition the former pays for the cost of publishing 

 the soil reports and maps, which means that for each dollar the State spends 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture furnishes about one and one-half dollars. 



It has been deemed advisable to publish the results of the preliminary 

 or general soil surveys at this time rather than to wait for the more detailed 

 report. Colored maps were not printed because of their high cost and it 

 did not seem practicable to expend several hundred dollars for such in this, 

 our preliminary work. 



