Ill 



Methods and Materials Used in Soil Testing. 



By H. A. Huston. 



The consumption of commercial plant foods in the United States has 

 reached approximately 5,000,000 tons and the cost to the consumer is 

 nearly equal to the sum which we formerly paid for imported sugar, and 

 which became the slogan in the campaign to establish the beet sugar in- 

 dustry in America— $100,000,000. 



The industry is established, but by no means stationary. It has in- 

 creased at least 50 per cent, during the past five years, a very high rate 

 considering the magnitude of the business. 



In the manufacture and control of these products there is employed a 

 large number of chemists, and the Association of Official Agricultural 

 Chemists, now over a quarter of a century old, was originally formed for 

 devising suitable methods of analysis for these products. Thirty-three 

 States have special laws for fertilizer inspection. The American Chemical 

 Society recently organized a Division of Fertilizer Chemists, and most of 

 our agricultural colleges and experiment stations devote a considerable 

 amount of attention to the subject. 



The farmer wants to know the facts about commercial plant foods and 

 all officialdom, from the bureau chiefs of the National Department of 

 Agriculture to the local speaker at the township farmers' institute, un- 

 dertakes to enlighten him. 



In those sections of the country where fertilizers have been longest 

 used — along the Atlantic, the eastern gulf coast and the upper Ohio Val- 

 ley — the experiment stations and control officials appreciate the magnitude 

 and importance of the industry and understand its vital relation to crop 

 production. In marked contrast to this is the state of affairs in the greater 

 part of the great area drained by the Mississippi, where the most of our 

 maize, wheat and oats are produced. Here we find also the curious com- 

 bination of land rapidly increasing in money value and at the same time 

 declining in productiveness, while the cost of farm labor is increasing. 

 These circumstances cause the farmer to inquire how his crops may be 

 increased and whether commercial plant foods may be profitable in this 

 connection. . 



