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AGRICULTURAL AND MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



Analyses of Dorset Soils. 



Under an arrangement with the Dorset County Council, 

 the Agricultural Department of Reading College has under- 

 taken to analyse twenty specimens yearly of soils from 

 Dorset. These are to be complete analyses, showing, in 

 addition to their general composition, the amount of avail- 

 able plant food present. The districts from which the 

 -samples of soil are taken are carefully selected, so that the 

 various geological formations in the county may be well 

 represented, and also that each may be, as far as possible, 

 typical of a considerable area of land. The principal object of 

 the work is to place in the hands of the Dorset agriculturists 

 information as to the composition of the soils of the county, 

 and to give suggestions for the manuring of the different 

 classes of soils. 



The scheme came into operation in January 1898, and the 

 Board have now received from Mr. D. A. Gilchrist, the 

 Director of the Agricultural Department of Reading College, 

 a copy of the first report on the analyses made last year.* 

 It is intended that similar preliminary reports shall be 

 published annually, and a full report issued at the end of the 

 five years. 



In this preliminary report, the number of soils analysed is 

 naturally insufficient to justify any conclusions as to the con- 

 nection between the chemical composition and the geo- 

 logical formation ; and it has been found impossible to deal 

 completely with the agricultural descriptions of the soils 

 and of the districts from whence they have come in making 

 suggestions for the manuring of the different districts. 



* First Annual Refort on the Soils of Dorset : Supplement VIII. to the Journal of 

 Reading College, August, 1899. Price is. 



