Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1883-02-07
SOIL ANALYSIS.

DULL hNAL1C4
An article by Prof. E. W. Hilgard
upon the "Obiects and Interpretations
of Soil Analysis is printed in the Ag
ricultural Review, and contains som
sensible ideas on @ subject which is q
vexation to those practical agriculturists
who despise I" book farmer" Prof.
Hilgard acknowledges, as he could not
but do, that soil analysis has hith erto
failed to meet the expectations which it
formerly raised concerning discoveries
in the art of agriculture, and the larger
part of his paper is devoted to an expla-
nation of the reasons why chemists have
hitherto failed to tell from the compost
ton of a soil whether it would raise
crops or not. He thinks that in Europe
the principal obstacle TO The success of
analysis has been the lack of virgin soils,
nearly all being changed from their
original composition by frequent crop
ping and the use of manures. In the
United States, also, there has been q
record of failures IN the attempt to make
the analysis of soils of practical benefit
to farmers, and one scientific man Is
quoted by Professor Hilgard as saying
that he would rather trust an old
farmer to tell him about the value Of a
soil than the best chemist alive" Never
theless, practical farmers are not always
infallible judges of the value of soils, S.
many who have moved vest and taken
up government land, have found to their
cost. There are spots even In California,
young as Is the state and fertile as her
soil generally Is, which are marked with
reminders of former occupation, but are
now deserted or given up to sheep pas
turage. On some of the alkaIi plains
there are ruins of cabins, built by the
original settlers who took up
the land under the belief that / t
could be cultivated, but dis
covered their error, and had to move
away. These mistakes are made by the
pioneer settler, and the scientist, with
his chemical analysis, will perhaps
never get ace enough to the front Of
civilization 10 prevent their commission.
But III spite OF this, there are advan-
tages which may be realized from soil
analysis of practical value. sufficiently
important to justify any amount Of re-
search and experiment III the effort to
obtain them. One such advantage is
that Of knowing what kind Of manure is
required to bring an exhausted or infer
tile soil up to productivity, to learn
which the farmer ought not to be re-
duced TO the necessity of going and try
ing first one kind and then another.
until he strikes the one needed. Pro
fessor Higard finds that the first mis-
takes are made in taking representative
soil specimens. They may be taken III
lpots which do not resemble the rest of
the soil, and they may be exclusively
from the surface soil, and, therefore,
constitute no test of the subsoil. Again.
physical conditions may determine the
degree Of fertility of soil as mach
as the character Of it's ingredients.
A heavy alluvial soil may be improved
IN crop-bearing qualities by being d.
luted with pure sand, though the per-
centage of plant food is thereby re-
duoed. It is apparent that unless these
and other conditions are duly daken into
account no analysis of soil will be of
value, and that, Professor Higard says,
is not usually done. He further says
that by approaching the question in an
indirect line-by observing what forms
OF vegetation soil naturally produces
IN its virgin state, and then ascertaining
what elements produce this result, a
true science of soil analysis may be es-
tabished.