This collection is unique in Canada and is available for viewing in display cases on the second floor hallway of the Earth Sciences Building. The soil profiles of Canada collection is a valuable reference source in undergraduate courses offered by the Department of Renewable Resources, other related disciplines and of interest to campus visitors. A comprehensive collection of soil profiles representing the major and prominent soils of Alberta resides in Earth Sciences Room 2-36. This collection is used extensively for teaching and extension at the undergraduate and graduate level. This collection spans a period of collection in excess of 60 years.
Many profiles are unique in that they represent soils before cultivation occurred.
A reference set is used for display, while similar or duplicate profiles are used in class and made available to select groups, outside the Department of Renewable resources, for teaching and extension activities. The collection was inventoried and reclassified to adhere to the current classification system in 1984. J.D. Newton and C.F. Bentley while working in Ceylon and Indonesia, some years ago. A special collection of four Alberta profiles form a focal point of the Department's Reading Room - the J.D. Newton Soil Science Collection. These profiles were collected for the First International Congress of Soil Science in 1927.