644- REPORT — 1901. 



Stock-breediug, Dairying-, and Tillage, the last viewed in detail as regards the 

 most economical and profitable application of manures, and the selection of soils 

 most appropriate to different kinds of crops. 



Viewed in a more general way, the utility of Geology may he considered, as 

 regards the valuation of land, the development of estates, and schemes of irrigation 

 and drainage. 



We may omit the special case in which soils may be regarded as mere recep- 

 tacles of manures (in places within easy reach of ready markets, in which case 

 high profits are often realised) ; and proceed to note that in general farming, not 

 only have facilities for drainage and percolation to be considered, as well as the 

 conditions of retentiveness, capillarity, and absorptiveness, or the quality of re- 

 tentivenoss for fertilisers — all of which are determined by geological circumstances — 

 but the nature and abundance or scarcity of crude fertilising substances naturally 

 present in soils, to be operated on and rendered available for plant use by acidulated 

 •waters in the ground, have a very important bearing upon the quality of land, and 

 are equally determined by geological considerations. 



In virtue of differences in the amounts of the leading fertilising constituents in 

 soils, and differences in the degree of facility with which they are rendered avail- 

 able, a great range of intrinsic soil-values is observable in Ireland, where according 

 to Sir R. Griffith some land is to be met with capable of putting upwards of 3 cwt. 

 of flesh per Irish acre (or 2| cwt. per statute acre) upon grass-fed animals each 

 season. 



Chemical analyses of soils, as means of discriminating as to their resources or 

 deficiencies, of determining the amounts of fertilisers immediately available accord- 

 ing to Dr. IDyer's method, or the amounts soluble in aqua regia according to that 

 adopted by M. de Gasparin, or the bulk amounts present in any sample, can never, 

 on account of the expense and number which would be requisite, come to be 

 regarded as a practicable feature of economic farming procedure, unless indeed 

 analyses be applied in connection with some ready and fairly reliable means of 

 comparing soil with soil in different localities. Such means would be afforded by 

 soil maps upon a geological basis. 



Agricultural maps {cartes a<jronomiques) have been advocated by such autho- 

 rities as De Caumont and Delesse on the Continent. Risler, head of the first 

 Agricultural College of France, not only values the aid which geology supplies, 

 but considers that detailed geological maps would suffice for agricultural purposes, 

 such maps in that country fairly suggesting, not only the character of soils 

 resulting from the decay of immediately underlying strata, as regards their physical 

 qualities, whether as sand, loam, clay, and intermediate varieties, but the degree 

 and nature of their endowment also, with fertilising substances. 



In the British Isles north of the Thames, Drifts supervene to a great extent, 

 masking or obliterating the characters proper to soils, which otherwise would cover 

 each formation or igneous mass. Hence ordinary geological maps do not here 

 suffice for agricultural purposes in these countries. 



The Drift maps published by the Geological Survey, so highly serviceable 

 economically, in thicldy populated areas, for purposes of drainage, water supply 

 on a small scale, and in connection with the brick-making industry, seem to me to 

 come short of agricultural requirements in this, that they do not give prominence 

 to information bearing upon the natural endowments of soils as regards fertilisers 

 — not even as much so as ordinary maps showing the solid geology. 



I should therefore propose a scheme of soil maps which, while keeping in 

 view the elements upon which the phj'sical qualities of soils depend, gives pro- 

 minence to information bearing upon the soil resources. 



To do this I should use, somewhat as on our original Irish drifted maps, 

 close, wide, and medium stippling, to distinguish sands and gravels, boulder clay, 

 and intermediate varieties respectively — the boundaries of which in the field are 

 exceedingly ill-defined in many places. Over this I should apply a light wash of 

 colour appropriate to one of the following groups of rocks, to represent the soil, 

 whether drift-soil or soil directly formed over rock, according to the prevailing 

 character of debris present in the uppermost layer, the soil and subsoil, reserving 



