Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1875 — No Practical Advantage in the Analysis of Soils. [ARTICLE]

No Practical Advantage in the Analysis of Soils.

When young farmers first begin to wake up to the importance of maintaining the fertility of the ground they cultivate they think if they oply had knowledge sufficient to enable them to analyze th<* soils they could readily determine what elements are laekihg, which could be readily supplied. By this means a poor soil could be rendered productive at a trifling expense. But long experience has shown that soil analysis fails to throw light upon the mechanical or physical conditions which ljave a most important bearing upon crops and the grow th of every kind of plants. A writer in the Journal of Chemistry states that he entered upon the work ten years ago with much enthusiasm, and expected to be unerringly guided in his farm .operations by the results attained. “ It was found that while we had no difficulty in learning the exact ingredients of our soils, we could not ascertain in what -totes of combination they existed. Many soils examined were found to be quite similar in chemical composition, but they differed widely in their productive powers; and also soils which w*ere found to contain in rich abundance all the elements of plant nutrition, did not grow crops as we bad reason to expect.” Simple analysis of the soil, without taking into account the nature of subsoils, location, mechanical conditions etc., is not to be relied upon as a certain guide in the management of lands. Nevertheless, chemistry, directly and indirectly, affords great aid in soil cultivation, and in some cases soil analysis may be valuable. For instance, if lime or potash he wanting in soils, it will inform us of the fact, and we can supply these important substances with great benefit. A single analysis of he soil of a wheat or potato field may how the absence of some one of the elements of food upon which the plant depends, and if it were not supplied the crop would be a failure. Soils come from the rocks, and their character depends upon the nature of the rocks from which they have resulted. Some are rich in potash, others in lime ; and a soil rich in one or the other of these ingreedients is not benefited by their application. Thus, analysis teaches us how to prevent loss in two ways—loss of crops, by supplying needed plant food, ami loss in using unnecessary manure upon lands where it exists in abundance. a!so-teaches us that certain lands are naturally barren and cannot be reclaimed with profit, and that others have soluble salts in-such large proportions that they cannot grow crops. Yet, after all the expense incident to the analysis of certain soils, the result is wholly unsatisfactory to the requirements of the practical farmer or gardener. There are a large number of enigmas in soil cultivation which chemistry lias thus far failed to ekplain. It is known, for instance, that superphosphate greatly benefits a turnip field, and yet analysis of the plant reveals the fact that but little phosphoric acid enters the plant; and, also, it is probable that potash and other salts may exist in such peculiar combination in soils as not to be readily detected by chemical tests, as we find that potatoes, which require much potash, will sometimes grow upon soils in which we fail to detect this agent. Careful experiment and observation have led us to conclude that less practical or positive knowledge is gained by analysis of soils than many suppose. One of the most successful wheat-growers in the State of New York collected a boxful of soil by taking a handful here and there from a field on which he was accustomed to harvest forty bushels of clean wheat per acre, and he sent the soil to the city of Albany with the request that the Agricultural Chemist would analyze the sample with special reference to the productiveness of that soil for wheat. Indue time the analysis was made with scientific accuracy and care, the result of which was reported to the former. To his surprise, the chemist assured him that the soil of that fiqkl might be brought into a condition to produce a fair crop of wheat, but as he found it he stated that certain elements were lacking which were essential to the production of this kind of grain.— N. Y. Herald.