Research Services

H. C. Knoblauch.

State agricultural experiment stations for a long time have been leaders in research in soil science. The objective has been to develop methods of soil management that make production more efficient and maintain soil fertility.

Antedating them were various State Geological and Agricultural Survey Reports on the chemical nature of soils and plants and the effect of fertilizers on plant growth. The first of the reports was published in 1821 by the New York Board of Agriculture. About 30 States had geological surveys, and the reports were the background for the intensive work of the experiment stations.

THE CONNECTICUT LEGISLATURE in 1875 passed a resolution establishing an agricultural experiment station. Its early work had to do with the analysis of fertilizers. Farmers and fertilizer manufacturers met in 1876 in Connecticut and recommended that all fertilizers sold in the State carry a guarantee as to composition, which was to be determined by analysis at the experiment station. Out of that project grew the concept of combining intensive laboratory study with systematic and continued field trials to help farmers solve their problems.

The United States Department of Agriculture began work on the chemical analysis of soils and plants at about the time it was established in 1865.

The Pennsylvania, Illinois, and New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Stations started some of the earliest comprehensive field investigations of soil-management problems in this country.

Experiments that started in Pennsylvania in 1882 indicate the scope of the early studies. They evaluated a number of soil treatments, such as fertilizer materials, lime, gypsum, crop rotations, and farm manure.

Many State agricultural experiment stations were established in the East and Midwest in the next three decades. They undertook systematic investigations of soil-management problems. Investigations on soils in relation to climate were carried on in the Weather Bureau in 1893. Soils research in the Department of Agriculture was organized in the Division of Agricultural Soils in 1894.

The Department of Agriculture established 18 field stations in 9 States by 1913. Many of them dealt with soil and water problems related to plant production in a region.

Field studies of soil management (except soil fertility) received minor consideration by the Department of Agriculture before 1940, but in 1942 the Department embarked on an expanded program of soil-management research. Most of the program is being carried out in cooperation with the State agricultural experiment stations.

The early investigations attempted to determine what could be added to the soil to maintain and increase crop production. Progress in the chemical industry made it possible to obtain the various chemicals that could be applied to the soil, and their effect on crop growth, yield, and soil conditions was measured.

CURRENT RESEARCH programs of the State stations and the Department of Agriculture place increasing emphasis on the physical and related biological and chemical properties of soils that limit production of crops and lead to recommendations to maintain or restore a desirable soil physical condition.

The recommendations on soil-management practices are based on results of many studies in laboratories, fields, and greenhouses of the chemical and physical reactions in the soil. Differences in climate, soil, and plants mean that the research must be conducted in many locations. The current program, even though it is extensive, does not provide information for all areas. For localities in which no research results are available, recommendations are based on results obtained in related conditions.

Support for the program is obtained from Federal and State sources and from contributions by industry for work on specific problems. Much of the work is carried on cooperatively by the Federal Government and the States. Because a large part of the research in soil management involves adaptation of findings to local conditions, it is carried on entirely by the States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.

The Department of Agriculture and the State agricultural experiment stations established soil and fertilizer research committees in 1947. Four regional committees and one national committee were organized to review existing programs of soil research, determine whether additional research was needed, and organize projects of regional value and to coordinate the programs of research that are being conducted at several hundred locations.

RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH usually are presented on the basis of a particular soil type. Because the soils have not been surveyed and classified in some localities, no soil-type name is available. The important characteristics of most of the soils in the major agricultural areas are known, however. Publications of the experiment stations and the Department give assistance in determining how results under one set of conditions will apply to areas where detailed information is not available.

The map shows the locations of the State agricultural experiment stations, State substations, and the field stations of the Department of Agriculture. The Federal stations indicated on the map include only those where soil-management research was conducted in 1957.