ANNUAL MEETING OHIO STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 71 



a check on a man's field judgment. We find this necessary because of the differ- 

 ences in different men as to what constitutes a loam or clay. You gentlemen 

 may not realize it but this difference is very marked among farmers themselves. 

 In sections where there are large areas of sand a sandy loam with a clay sub- 

 soil will be called a clay, but where the surrounding soils are largely heavy clays 

 the same sandy loam will be termed a sandy soil. This makes some standard 

 necessary in order that we may know whether we are using these terms with the 

 same meaning. It is of course necessary to determine the texture of both soil 

 and subsoil as well as the character of the underlying material. You can readily 

 understand that it will make a great deal of difference whether the substratum 

 consists of gravel or clay. In the first case the drainage will be excessive, par- 

 ticularly where the gravel came near the surface, while in the latter it will be 

 very poor and especially so where the clay is of an impervious nature. 



COLOR AN IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION. 



One of the most obvious physical properties of the soil, one which has been 

 used by practical farmers as an index of its character from time immemorial, 

 is that of color. "Black soils," "red soils," "gray soils," "brown soils," "white 

 soils," etc., are terms in very common use. In itself color may be of very 

 little importance but as an indicator of physical and chemical conditions it is of 

 the greatest moment. The practical argriculturist will no more class together 

 soils markedly dissimilar in color than the ethnologist will consider a white man 

 and a black man as belonging to the same race. 



Observations have shown that certain properties of the soil are asso- 

 ciated with certain color characteristics. A black color has come to be al- 

 most synonymous to productiveness. If the soil in the level, rather poorly 

 drained but not swampy places in your fields have turned white it is one of 

 the best evidences that I know of the need of lime. So far as my rather wide 

 observations have extended I have never seen these "white soils" formed in the 

 presence of a large amount of lime. Their occurrence is therefore very strong 

 evidence of the need of lime not only in the "white soils" but in the other soils 

 formed from the same character of material. For reasons like this the color 

 is of the very greatest value to the soil surveyor. By its use it is often pos- 

 sible to detect chemical differences which the most refined methods of chem- 

 ical analysis are as yet unable to explain. 



ARRANGEMENT OF THE SOIL PARTICLES. 



One must also consider the structure of the soil, or the arrangement of 

 the particles of which it is composed. We want to know whether a soil is open 

 and porous or whether it is compact and impervious, whether it is loose and 

 granular and easy to cultivate or whether it runs together and is difficult to 

 work. Such information is necessary in order to know whether a soil here is 

 similar to that in another place 



THE RELATION OF SOIL TO NATIVE VEGETATION. 



Since the object of the soil survey work is to secure knowledge which will 

 help us to understand better the relation of the soil to plant growth, one must not 

 forget to make a study of the native vegetation and various crops, as this will 

 often give an indication of differences^which it would not be possible to detect 

 otherwise. It is sometimes easy to trace the line of separation between two soils 

 by the difference in the vegetation. The presence of certain trees like the chestnut 

 and sourwood are indicative of an acid condition of the soil; while a luxuriant 



