80 ADDRESSES 



WHAT THE SOIL SURVEY HOPES TO ACCOMPLISH. 



There is nothing more vital to the well-being of a nation than agriculture and 

 nothing more vital to agriculture than the soil. Since this is true can there be 

 anything of greater importance than a thorough knowledge of the properties and 

 peculiarities of the numerous types of soils, together with an understanding of the 

 kinds and varieties of crops, the methods of soil management, the system of rota- 

 tion and farm management, the kind and amount of fertilization, best suited to 

 each individual type. 



Don't understand me to claim, gentlemen, that the soil survey will in 

 itself answer all of these questions. We do believe that it is fundamental 

 work in that it will furnish the basis for the various lines of investigation 

 which are necessary to secure this information, and is therefore absolutely 

 essential to a proper solution of these problems. All these studies must be 

 made from the standpoint of the individual soil type if the best results are 

 to be secured. 



It is not possible for the Experiment Station to conduct experiments 

 on every farm in the State. Such a course is entirely impracticable and un- 

 necessary. We do believe, however, that studies should be made on all the 

 important soil types so that we may know just what is best for each of these. 



With a central experiment station, sub-stations, county test farms, cooperative 

 experiments with the farmers, and studies of the practices on individual farms 

 a great deal of data, pertaining to the requirements of each particular soil, can be 

 rapidly secured. In fact, a large amount of material has already been acquired. 



With the knowledge and careful description of the soils, which will be secured 

 through the soil survey, we will be able, to determine pretty accurately what type 

 of soil occurs on any farm and thus be in a position to give much more definite 

 and positive advice than is now possible. We hope some day to be able to write 

 a prescription to fit your particular conditions, but we must know what those con- 

 ditions are before this can be done. One of the most important of these local 

 conditions is the soil and a knowledge of this is, therefore, an essential step in 

 the different lines of investigation which may make this possible. This knowl- 

 edge we expect to secure through the soil survey which we are just beginning. 

 When this survey, and the various lines of investigation with which it is proposed 

 to follow it up and of which it forms the basis are completed, we believe there 

 will have been accomplished something which will be of inestimable value to the 

 farmers of this State, a work which will help Ohio to keep in the very forefront 

 of agricultural production. 



POSSIBLE CROP YIELDS IN OHIO. 



BY C. E. THORNE. 

 Director Experiment Station, Wooster, 0. 



Ohio s is growing annually about 35 bushels of corn and about 14 bushels of 

 wheat per acre. This yield of wheat is less than half of that produced in England 

 and but little more than half the yield of France and Germany. Those countries 

 started 200 years ago with a yield smaller than the present yield of Ohio. Even 

 fifty years ago the yield in those countries was not so very much greater than the 

 present Ohio yield, but it has been brought up within the last half century to the 

 present figures largely through the application of scientific methods to the culti- 



