Excerpt from The Soil Solution: The Nutrient Medium for Plant Growth It has long been the custom to regard soil chemistry from one of two diametrically opposed points of view. Either, it has been considered extremely simple, or complex and hopelessly difficult. In either case the impression has generally prevailed that practical work in soil chemistry consists in treating the soil with some solvent or other and analyzing the resulting solution for "available" plant food elements; in other words, that the chemist's role in soil studies is merely that of an analyst. Soil chemistry is complex, but not by any means hopelessly so. Unfortunately, the complexity of most of the problems presented has deterred the student of pure chemistry from attacking them, and because they do not offer any material pecuniary rewards, they have not appealed strongly to the investigator in applied chemistry. Investigations in soil chemistry, for their own sake, or for the sole purpose of increasing the sum total of human knowledge concerning the phenomena taking place in the soil, have been comparatively rare. The subject has generally been regarded from the analytical point of view and as incidental to agronomic studies. One purpose of this little book is to show the investigator in chemistry who is not limited by the condition that his work must bring some personal financial return, that the soil and its problems offer a field for his efforts quite worthy of ranking alongside the most interesting branches of pure chemistry, as well as being of the very highest importance. to the development of the welfare of the human race. Another purpose is to point out the line of attack upon the problems of soil chemistry which at this time offers the largest opportunity for results. In how far the details of the story in the following pages are correct, time with its further investigations will tell. In a sense, the correctness of the details is of secondary importance. It is of the first importance, however, that there should be a general recognition that soil phenomena are essentially dynamic in character, and that the investigation of the properties of the soil solution and its relation to crop production is a procedure certain to yield results of positive value. 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.