The soils of Europe

Abstract

Short guide for using the book- The book should be equally useful for those requiring a bare, rough classification of the soils and who are content with a definition of the global type (great soil group) and also those requiring the most exact possible characterization of their soil. The beginner can start with the easy keys for the identification of the most frequent cultivated, grassland and forest soils without preparatory reading of the other sections of the book. If the particular soil lies in Central or Northern Europe, then he starts with the key group No. 2, if in the Southern Europe, then with key group No. 3. The easiest key in both cases is that using the soil colour as starting point. A simple test on the chalk content and reaction of the soil will enable him to use, at times, the subsequent keys. A slight knowledge of rocks will help in special case to make the recognition of particular soil forms very easy by the key based on the kind of parent rock.