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Recent Trends in Soil Classification¹

ABSTRACT

Special effort is now needed to define the units of soil classification and of soil mapping more precisely in terms of all their features, internal and external. Greater quantitative accuracy is needed in regard to the features described, rather than an increase in the number of features described.

However close attention is devoted to slope, erosion, stoniness, susceptibility to overflow, or other similar features, it must be remembered that these are characteristics of soil types as well as of phases, and have little definite significance by themselves. No single soil characteristic has much significance until considered in relation to all of the others.

The modern concept of the complex as a unit of mapping has great usefulness, provided it is properly defined in terms of properly defined taxonomic classificational units.

Modern techniques in soil surveying have allowed greater analytical precision. The usefulness of these data will depend, however, on our ability to synthesize them into a proper system of classification.

The development of soil productivity ratings for each mapping unit for adapted crops, under defined systems of management, offers the most promising opportunity for the final synthesis of the data of soil science in specific terms.

¹ Contribution from the Soil Survey Division, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S., Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.

² Principal Soil Scientist.