ANNUAL MEETING OHIO STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



as the soil and the climate? Had the Yankees of the Western Reserve Ashta- 

 bula, Geauga, Portage and other counties settled in Fayette and Madison counties, 

 would or would not that have been a large farm area? Had they settled in 

 Montgomery and Darke counties would parts of those counties be a pronounced 

 center of tobacco production? 



With the hope of unraveling these and dozens, yes hundreds, of other 

 riddles and of helping us to understand better the agricultural conditions of 

 the state, Mr. W. A. Lloyd of our office is now conducting a general historical 

 survey of the state which considers the different classes of people, crops, live- 

 stock and types of farming; the date of introduction of each, the rate of increase 

 of each; the date of climax of each if reached; the rate and cause of decline of 

 each if such exists; and the relation of each to the other. To be sure, in the 

 year or so that he can devote to this project he cannot hope to work it out in 

 all its detail, but he can secure information that will be of vital importance 

 and that will point the way accurately to later detailed surveys. 



A GENERAL SOIL SURVEY. 



The need of a soil survey of the State has already been referred to 

 in this paper. Certainly, no one who has traveled over the state to any 

 great extent can question the importance of this need. If there are any 

 who question it I am sure that a few months association with a department of 

 extension of an agricultural experiment station will convince him of his error. 

 In 1905, a year after the organization of our Department, the author of this 

 paper wrote regarding Extension Work in Circular 47 of the Experiment Station 

 as follows : "The varying climate and soil conditions prevent our formulating 

 any general conclusions that will apply to the State at large, and therefore pre- 

 vent the publishing of many reports. The best we can do in most cases is to 

 attempt to answer each individual request with information regarding the section 

 from which the request has come. This part of our work will be very much 

 lightened and its value increased many fold as soon as the state is provided with 

 a complete soil classification and preliminary soil survey. Accurate conclusions 

 may then be drawn for a given soil which will be understood by all well in- 

 formed farmers in that soil area." This was written more than six years ago 

 and has been reiterated hundreds of times by the various members of our field 

 staff who have, in connection with their field work, come face to face with the 

 absolute necessity of assistance along these lines. 



Perhaps it is well, however, that we have waited. I seriously question if 

 six years ago the man was in existence who could have handled this work as 

 we now feel it should be handled. At any rate, the man we have in charge of 

 it in our Department, Dr. George N. Coffey, has been receiving constant training 

 throughout the entire period, so that now our sister institutions in other states 

 and the National Bureau of Soils, from which he came to us, say unqualifiedly 

 that he is the best soil survey man in the country. He assisted in 1900 in making 

 the first detailed county survey that was ever made by the National Bureau of 

 Soils in the State of Ohio, and since that time has worked in every state in the 

 Union east of the Rocky Mountains except two. 



Beginning last July, he has been conducting a soil reconnaissance, in 

 which he visited every county in the state but five, and by means of which 

 and his former studies he hopes to determine quite largely what types of 

 soil are to be found in the state. Beginning next spring with the two as- 

 sistants which we shall be able to provide he will undertake a general soil 

 survey of the state.* In this he will study the types and sub-types more care- 

 fully and undertake to locate them in a general way. While he will hope to 



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