.5 0 
O 
JOURNAL 
OF THE 
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 
OF ENGLAND. 
THE EFFECT OF CLIMATE 
AND WEATHER ON THE SOIL. 
The dominating influence of weather on agriculture asserts 
itself not only on the growth of crops ; it has at least as great 
an effect on the soil. It is the purpose of the present paper to 
discuss some of these soil effects and to see how they arise and 
to what extent they are of importance in the economy of the 
farm. We shall find that the interest of the subject is not con- 
fined alone to the thoughtful and observant farmer who likes 
to think out the reasons for the things he sees ; it. appeals also 
to the man whose chief care is for practical information, 
because it already affords some help, and seems likely in the 
future to afford much more, in deciding the best methods of 
soil management. Climate and weather apparently lie beyond 
human control, but soil does not ; there are reasonable hopes 
that the farmer can step in to modify in some directions the 
effect of the climate and the weather on the soil. 
The soil as we find it to-day represents the result of at least 
two sets of changes : a breaking up and decomposition of rock 
material, which gives rise to the mineral framework of the 
soil ; and a slow accumulation of organic matter in consequence 
of a long succession of generations of plants and animals that 
have lived and died in the soil and, in dying, have left their 
remains to mingle with it. Both sets of changes are very 
profoundly affected by the climate in ways which must be 
discussed in some detail. 
The Effect of Climate on the Formation of the 
Mineral Framework of the Soil. 
It would be impossible within the limits of this paper to 
trace out in detail the processes by which the mineral portion 
of the soil has come into being ; indeed much of the history is 
B 
YOL. 74. 
