EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. III. ISSUED MAY, 1892. No. 10. 



EDI TOUT A L NOTES. 



Closely allied to (lie meteorological i)i()l)leiiis to wliieli refeieiiee was 

 made in tlie hist inimber of the Record, are the questions n'latiiig to 

 the teuiperature aii<l moisture of the soih The Maryhind Station, iu 

 cooperation with this De})artment and Jolins Hopkins University, is 

 conducting soil investigations on a quite extended scale and has already 

 issued an interesting preliminary report. The fblh)wing suggestive 

 article has been prepared at the request of this Otiice by Professor 

 Whitney, under whose charge the soil stndies of the Maryland St«ti<m 

 are being carried on: 



The intense activity in agricnltural investigations between 1860 and 

 1870 was nowhere felt more strongly than in the study of the relation 

 of the soil to ])lant growth. Liebig's generalization of the mineral 

 theory of ]>lant growth had stimulated research into the chemical com- 

 jjosition of soils and plants. Avith a view to explaining the cause of the 

 fertility of agricultural lands. 



A large amount of chemical data has been collected, but the investi- 

 gations have shown that there is no simple relation between the chemi- 

 cal composition of a soil and plant and the fertility of the land, and 

 there seems to be no sat isfiictorj' interpietation of the. results. For 

 this reason most of our experiment statious are very loath to give the 

 necessary time for the chemical analysis of soils, knowing that the 

 results in most cases will h:ive so little value. 



It hiis long been recognized by piactical men, as well as by many of 

 our scientific investigators, that the texture of the soil and the physical 

 relation to moisture and heat have much to do with the distribution and 

 d(ivelo])ment of crops. Years ago Jolinson went so far as to say, in 

 How Crops Feed, ii. 21G, that "it is a well-recogiuzed fact that next 

 to temperature the water sujqdy is the most influential factor in the 

 ])roduct of the crop. Poor soils give good crops in seasons ot plentiful 

 and well distributed rain or when skillfully irrigated, but insutticient 

 moisture in the soil is an evil that no supplies of plant food can neu- 

 tralize." Storer also, in recording the experiments of others in his 



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