SOIL COMPOSITION 



103 



sufficient purpose, method, and discrimination to give much im- 

 portance to the results, which are summarized as follows: 



TABLE 20.1. COMPOSITION OF CANADIAN SURFACE SOILS 

 Pounds per Acre in 2 Million of Soil (about 6f Inches) 



In referring to the averages represented in this tabular state- 

 ment, Professor Frank T. Shutt (Chief Chemist for the Dominion 

 Experimental Farms since 1887) says: 



"They are not provincial averages; they are rather averages from large 

 untilled areas in the several provinces, and may therefore serve to indicate 

 the general character of much of the yet unoccupied lands of Canada." (Do- 

 minion Experimental Farms Reports, 1897, page 169.) 



A study of the details shows much variation, but in the main 

 these are counterbalanced so that the averages have much meaning. 

 Professor Shutt states that the one sample from Manitoba " repre- 

 sents the unfertilized and uncropped prairie soil of the Red River 

 Valley, Manitoba," and adds: 



"It was taken from section 31, township 4, range i west. The uniformity 

 in character of the soil over a very large area in Manitoba makes the data here 

 presented of more than ordinary importance. " 



"We may safely conclude that there is here ample scientific proof of the well- 

 nigh inexhaustible stores of plant food, and that this prairie land, as regards 

 the elements of fertility, ranks with the richest of known soils. " 



Doctor George M. Dawson, Director of the Geological Survey of 

 Canada, is quoted as follows: 



"Of the alluvial prairie of the Red River much has already been said, and 

 the uniform fertility of its soil cannot be exaggerated. . . . The area of this 

 lowest prairie has been approximately stated as 6900 square miles. " 



