Bedford County Soil Scientist Rob Knight labels Penn
sylvania's “last acre” of mapped soil as Philo.
Working for people who work the land
VITAMIN E
Recent Ohio Research indicates that the increased
incidence of mastitis and retained placentas is caused
by inadequate levels of Vitamin E in Dairy Cow Rations.
This is prevalent in the Selenium-Deficient Northeast. As
a result, Agway immediately increased Vitamin E levels
in all formula feeds and mineral premixes.
Other feed companies will probably follow suit.
Shouldn’t you be using FEED FROM THE LEADER?
PA’s Last Acre Mapped
SCHELLSBURG Soil Sci
entist Rob Knight stepped into the
shallow pit, brushed his hand
across its surface, gathered some
pebbles from the bottom, and
explained to some 50 dignitaries
surrounding the site: “It’s a flood
plain soil with mottled color;
there’s a gravelly layer, very por
ous to water...lt’s an excellent
agricultural soil, good for yopr
com.” With that he picked up a
large map and penned the classifi
cation of Pennsylvania’s “last
acre” as Philo soil.
After 44 years, all 28,881,800
acres in Pennsylvania have been
classified and mapped. The “last
acre” ceremony, observed by fed
eral, state and local officials, was
staged at Camp Living Waters near
here October 23.
Although the State’s soil classi
fication and mapping project
began in 1943, the effort was
pursued with determination here in
Bedford County only in the last
seven years, according to County
Soil Conservation (SCS) Director
Terry Miller. Initial soil identifica
tion efforts in the Commonwealth
date to 1900 in Lancaster County.
FARM x
ENTERPRISE f AGWAYI
SERVICE V /
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 31, 1987-A25
Pennsylvania is the only state of its
size to have completed mapping.
While the State’s soil mapping
is finished, the soil survey isn’t,
pointed out Richard Arnold, direc
tor of the Soil Survey Program,
SCS, Washington, D.C., as he
addressed the gathering. The
survey is a publication containing
soil maps with accompanying
manuscript descriptions.
Added Fred King, deputy sec
retary with the State Department of
Agriculture, “Now we have the
basic natural resource data neces
sary to help in municipal planning,
in fanning decisions, in govern
ment decisions.” The mapping and
subsequent surveys will help “so
we can make wise decisions for
land use," he said.
Gerald Lipscomb, SCS state soil
scientist, noted that soils informa
tion on every acre of land in the
Commonwealth is now available.
Published surveys will be avail
able for all Pennsylvania counties
by late 1991, he added.
Arnold likened soil mapping to
the building of a structure, which
begins with a foundation, stone by
stone. Mapping is the foundation
on which additional land use deci
sions can be made. “We have
humanized our landscape,” Arnold
pointed out. “It is more beautiful
than when it was all natural. We
need to take care of our soil resour
ces so that we continue to have one
of the most beautiful humanized
landscapes in the world.”
From the foundation of mapping
and published surveys, the next
step, according to Lipscomb, is to
digitalize the information so that it
will be available via computer.
Also, surveys published earlier
now will be updated.
Cooperating in the state’s soil
classification effort, in addition to
the soil scientists who walked the
land and augered its actual acres,
were SOS officials in Harrisburg
and Washington as well as scien
tists at Penn State University and
officials with the Common
wealth’s Departments of Agricul
ture and Environmental
Resources.
Rob Knight served as party
leader of the team completing Bed
ford County’s classification and
mapping.
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