726 SOILS: properties and management 



Miami is taken from the Miami River in southwestern 

 Ohio, where the Miami series was first recognized. 

 *~ This system of a proper generic name and a descriptive 

 class name is most widely used in the United States to 

 identify the soil type. It gives a specific identity of the 

 soil in its situation and in all its properties. 



Hopkins 1 has proposed and used the Dewey Library 

 System of numerical naming of soils, by which each prop- 

 erty is given a fixed series of numbers and the identifica- 

 tion number is obtained by combining the numbers that 

 represent its properties. Whole numbers are assigned to 

 important and definite soil types, and decimals are used 

 for related types possessing some distinct variations. 

 For example, 451.2 represents a glacial soil made up of 

 brown loam on silt. While the numbering system of 

 designation is admirable in many ways, it does not lend 

 itself to the same practical use that is possible with a 

 proper descriptive name. 



626. The equipment for survey work. — The most 

 important part of the equipment for soil survey work is 

 the field man. He should be a keen and careful observer, 

 and he should have had broad training for his work. He 

 should be acquainted with the technic of soils in the labora- 

 tory and in the field. He should be familiar with the 

 chief physical and chemical processes and material in- 

 volved in soil formation. He should have an under- 

 standing of that phase of geology known as physiography. 

 On the agricultural side, he should be acquainted with 

 plants and the methods of growing the more important 

 crops. He should know tillage practice, and should be 



1 Hopkins, C. G., and Pettit, J. H. The Fertility of Illinois 

 Soils. Illinois Agr. Exp. Sta., Bui. 123, p. 252. 1908. 



