44 SOILS AND FERTILIZERS 



province may represent residual soil, like the Piedmont 

 province, or glacial soil, or marine soil, or soils of other 

 processes of formation. 



The next smaller division is the series. A soil series has 

 been defined as"a group of soils having the same range in 

 color, the same character of subsoil, particularly as regards 

 color and structure, broadly the same tj^pe of relief (topog- 

 raphy) and drainage, and a common or similar origin." 

 The last of these properties is due to the fact that soils of 

 the same series must fall within the same province. 



The final division is the class, which has been described 

 in paragraph 33. A soil class is not limited in its occurrence 

 to a soil province, but the same class may be found in all 

 provinces. In this respect it differs from a series, any one 

 of which occurs only in a single province. 



A soil type represents a soil of a single province, a single 

 series and a single class, and represents the features of each. 

 The following is an example : 



Province Piedmont 



Series . . . Cecil 



Class Clay 



Type Cecil clay 



49. Information furnished by a soil survey. — The method 

 of arriving at the identification of a soil type involves a 

 history of the soil, and that may tell something about its 

 probable chemical composition, as may be judged from the 

 tables of analyses of soils of different formations (§§ 18-28). 

 The series we have already found to signify something in 

 regard to the working qualities of the soil, as does also the 

 class. These distinguishing features are much more marked 

 in some types than in others ; in the case of certain types 

 considerable definite information is available when the soil 

 type is known, while in the case of others less knowledge is 

 afforded. Some types always represent a defective soil due 



