246 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 
Among the major problems awaiting solution are the methods by which 
plants take up their nutrients and the further development of biochemical 
methods generally. 
Tue SOIL. 
The study of the soil may be approached from two points of view. In 
the first of these it is regarded as the seat of certain chemical, physical and 
biological processes which are investigated entirely from the scientific 
point of view without any reference to agriculture. This has been the 
method of attack of the Russian school in particular, and the supposition 
is that when a sufficient body of knowledge has been accumulated in this 
way, the consideration of the facts obtained may result in practical appli- 
cations of value to the agriculturist ; it should be emphasised, however, 
that the approach in the first instance is purely scientific. The interesting 
volume published a few months ago by Prof. G. W. Robinson of 
Bangor gives a clear exposition of the methods of this school and of the 
results which have, so far, been obtained. ‘The other method has been 
to study the soil as the medium of plant growth, to investigate practical 
problems as they arise and to have as its definite aim the giving of advice 
to those engaged in agriculture as to improving their methods of tillage 
and crop production. It is obvious, of course, that no definite division 
can be made between the two methods of approach, as is shown by the 
history of recent developments. In this country, while the former 
method has been by no means neglected, as witness the large amount of 
research work carried on at Rothamsted and to a lesser degree elsewhere, 
it is the latter method which has been in the main officially supported 
and subsidised by successive governments. 
Amongst the scientific methods which have emerged and received 
considerable prominence and support in recent years is the modern 
method of soil classification. This, while belonging to the scientific 
method of investigation, also seeks to justify its existence by the claim 
that it is of immediate importance to the farmer. The method was first 
developed in Russia where it was shown as early as 1879 that climate is 
responsible for the great tracts of similar soil found in that country ; 
this idea was developed by later workers and more recently by Glinka 
and others, who recognised some of the limitations of the original method 
and proposed in place of the earlier zonal type of classification a system 
based on the effect of climate on the development of the soil profile. 
Soils were divided into two great groups. In the first were placed the soils 
in which the profile shows that the external soil-forming processes, 
especially climate, have predominated ; the second group comprises those 
soils in which the internal process, i.e. parent material, still predominates. 
These groups are further subdivided, but the whole system lays special 
emphasis on the development of the soil profile—that is, the vertical section 
from the surface soil to the unweathered parent material. 
Although soil surveys had been carried out for a considerable time in 
Europe and the United States, modern soil surveying may be said to date 
from the first International Soil Congress held at Budapest in 1909. 
At this meeting Glinka explained the new method of classifying and 
