Excerpt from Soils and Soil Fertility The aim of this book has been to give an outline of the principles of soil fertility in a form adapted for use in agricultural courses as given in High and other Secondary schools. While it is assumed that students using the book will have had, or will take at the same time, a course in botany, a brief statement of the essential requirements for plant growth is made in Chapter I, to serve as a starting point in the study of the soil. An effort has been made to make the book practical and give much information which can be immediately applied in farming, but a greater effort has been made to explain clearly the principles underlying farm practice so far as it applies to the management of the soil. It is distinctly recognized that knowledge of these principles is far from complete and that there are differences of opinion on some phases of the subject, but we have tried to give only those conclusions which are well supported by fact and accepted by the majority of authorities on the subject. It is hoped that the laboratory exercises can be given as outlined and that field excursions and practical illustrations may be used to establish the principles discussed in the class room. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.