Corn Growers' Association. 201 



as a basis determine the best means of insuring their preservation. 



This has long been a recognized function of governments with 

 however limited application. For more than half a century the 

 determination of the mineral resources of many of the states of 

 this country has been a recognized function of the state govern- 

 ments. Our own national government and practically every othei' 

 civilized government in the world has done the same thing. Mis- 

 souri has spent within the last sixty years more than half a mil- 

 lion dollars for geological and mineralogical investigation. It has 

 been only within the last decade or two that any attention has 

 been paid similar investigations of soils, the source of man's most 

 important income. More or less spasmodic work on the nature 

 and composition of certain soils was done many years ago, but the 

 beginning of systematic investigation of soils in this country is 

 recent. While a good deal of data has been accumulated on many 

 different kinds of soils, yet the actual field relations of those soils, 

 their geologic and geographic distribution (especially the latter), 

 are still, to a great extent, unknown. 



The 43rd General Assembly of Missouri included in its appro- 

 priations to the Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station a small 

 amount of money for the purpose of starting soil survey work in 

 this State. The survey was organized in April, 1905, by the Bo?-rd 

 of Curators. It was placed under the general direction of the 

 Director of the Experiment Station and the work planned under 

 the following three heads. (1) The Field Division; (2) The 

 Chemical Division; (3) The Soil Experiment Division. The work 

 of the first was to cover the differentiation and mapping of the 

 various soils as they occur in the State, to take samples of each 

 type for analytical purpose, determine the physical character of 

 each soil by means of physical analysis and to prepare the reports 

 on the general character and distribution of the soils. 



The work of the second division was to consist of the deter- 

 mination of the chemical composition of the soil samples collected 

 by the first division and to analyze and discuss the results. 



The work of the third division was to include all the work 

 connected with the determination, by the growth of various crops 

 on the several soil types, of the best methods of handling the vari- 

 ous soils under actual field conditions. It was at first thought 

 that the study of actual agricultural conditions in the areas sur- 

 veyed by the field division should be carried on by the second 

 division, but that has been found impracticable, since the same 

 men must do both classes of work. They should be under the 



