STUDIES OK A SCOTTISH Dllll-T SOIL. 



PART I. THE COMPOSITION OF THE SOIL AND ol' 11 IK 

 MINERAL PARTICLES WHICH Co:\IP()SE 11'. 



I5v JAMES HENDRICK, B.Sc, 

 AND WILLIAM (J. OGG, M.A., B.Sc. 



(Depaiiinoi! of AgricuUural Research, Unirersily of Aberdeen.) 



Most of tho soil investigations in this couiitrv have been conducted 

 at Rothamsted or other parts of South Britain and the soils examined 

 have been chiefly those overlying the stratified rocks of the southern 

 half of England. These, however, are by no means typical of the whole 

 of Britain and research is needed into soils found extensively in Scotland 

 and other parts of Britain w^hich differ greatly in their origin, nature 

 and properties from those which have hitherto been tl>e chief subjects 

 to wiiich British investigators have devoted attention. The various 

 agricultural colleges are taking up the study of the soils of their respective 

 districts, and when the Farm of Craibstone was ac(|uired as an Experi- 

 ment Station bv the North of Scotland College, a series of soil investiga- 

 tions was immediately coninicn(<'(l. 



Crai})st()ne is situated about six miles nortli-west of .\berdeen and is 

 a farm typical of much of the agricultural land of the district and of 

 the North of Scotland generally. The soil is a boulder clay overlying 

 granite and varies much in depth ; the subsoil also varies much in 

 depth and texture, passing within a short distance from sand and 

 gravel to clay. The underlying rocks in Aberdeenshire are chiefly 

 granites and metamorphic rocks, and great parts of the neighbouring 

 counties arc founded on rocks of a similar nature. 



More important, how-ever, than the fundamental formation is the 

 drift material by which it has been overlaid during the ice age and 

 from which nio.st of the soils have been derived. This drift differs 



