Ellis, J.G.

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eCommons@USASK

The basic survey program and its relationship to productivity research in Saskatchewan

University of Saskatchewan Research Archive

l 3.1 The Basic Survey Program and its Relationship to Productivlty Resea~ch in Saskat~hewan J. G. Ellis WHY A ~RESURVEY? In recent years the !nstitute and, in particular, the soil survey staff have been asked why a resurvey. At times I am almost inclined to agree that maybe a resurvey is not necessary as anyone who uses the map and report together can become very knowledgeable regarding the ,),' soils delineated on No. 12. Unfortunately, many people use the No. 12 map without the report and miss a great deal in information necessary for the proper interpretation of the map. By using the map alone one can only identify the Association, its parent material, it~ s~rface texture, and topographic phase. If, however, this information is complemented by reading the report the user will find: that various series are containelfi in the association and each series has a specific location in the landscape. People who made maximum use of No. 12 maps and report and who were able to identify the series and parent materials mentioned in the reports indicated to the Institute.'bat var~ous areas in the province required a re~evaluation. This fact was ~~t unknown to the survey personnel who were aware that due to the scale of the mapping and the rapidity of the survey that man~ sepa-rations had been overlooked and detail sacrificed in order to compile a map of the soil resources i.n the settled or agricultural portion of the province. Thus the Institute initiated a resurve;y in 1958. This resurvey is known within the Institute as the "Basic ~urve;y Program". Such a program utilizes the lat~st mapping aids a~d techniques plus the nomenclature of the Canada Soil Classification . . System which is used nationally by all soil survey units. To introduce the Canada Soil Classification System to Sask~ atchewan readers the Institute published a book entitled, "A Guide to Understanding Saskatchewan Soils". This book describes the classifi9ation, morphology and agr~culfural significance of the 132 major soil profiles in Saskatchewan. The initiation of the Basic Survey Program with the first publication appearing in 1965 introduced to the user the •Map Unit Concept', and the second publication in 1967 complemented and further enhanced the Map Unit Concept by introducing the 'Landform Concept'. What then is this Map Unit Conce·pt and what contribution does tbe Institute think it is making in this resurvey program? Onci the· Soil· Association has been identified, the Map Unit becomes the most important feature of the soil map. It represents a portion or segment of a Soil Association and is composed of one or more Soil Series. Different Map Units are separated on the basis of different proportions of Soil Series occurring within the Asso-ciation. Within the Map Unit the various Soil Series profiles are associated with differences in topographic position and related drainage conditions. Hence, in the field, a Map Unit may be ident-ified first by its landscape (the pattern of differences in relief or beight, the kind and frequency of slopes, the comparative roughness of the surface and the drainage of the area). The full identification < of the Map Unit requires the recognition of the Soil Series profiles and their place and extent within the landscape. The Map Unit repre&ents an important advance in the mapping of. Saskatchewan soils. In the earlier surveys, such as No. 12 and No. 13, the only separations made in the Soil Associations shown on the map were of areas differing in texture or of areas differing in topography. As mentipned previously the position in the landscape of the various membe~ (Series) profiles of the Association was discussed in the report, but because of the broad scale of mapping they cou~d not be shown on the soil map. The adoption of the Map Unit makes it possible ,to indicate the location and e~tent of the most important Series profiles of a given Association. In the legend and on the soil map the Map Units are indicated by the letters representing the abbreviation of the Soil Association name and by a number. The numbers are used to distinguish the 133 different. Map Units be:Longing to th® same Association .• For e~ample 08, To explain the tandform Con.s~.· and. how it complements the Map Unit Concept we must return to a discussion of the soil association because map u~its are subdivisions within an associationb Association' names, as you all know, are names for the different parent mater~als which occur in the vari 0 us climatic zones in the province. For example, Weybur:t;J. is a glacial till in the~. clark br9wn zone, Melfort is a l~custrine clay in the black zane, The types of geological deposits which occur most ~requently. in Saskatchewan are glacial till 1 glacio-lacustrine, glacio-fluvial, aeolian 1 al~uvial and col1uvial materials. Th&se in turn can be· subdivided into undifferentiated, resorted~ modified~ slightly, moderately or strongly calcareous glacial tials; sandy, silty or clayey glacio-1acustrine, etc., depending on the detail you wish or can present and the significance of these more detailed par•nt I materials. By significant I mean how the parent material affects the profile development and profile sequences which occur in parti-cular areas. Fortunately glacial deposits in Saskatchewan, as in most oth~r glaciated areas, are characterize? by rather static landform con~ figurations. Gl~cial tills occur as ground moraines,or till plains and moraines (the undulating and rolling landscapes so familiar in Saskatchewan); glacio~lacustrine deposits occur as level to gently undulating lacustrine (lake) plains; glacio-fluvial deposits occur as outwash plains, kames, eskers, etc.; aeolian deposits occur as dunes or in the case of loess as.roverlays on other landforms; aLLuvial deposits occur on river levees, flood plains, deltas, etc.; and col~: luvial deposits occur at the base of valleys. hills and escarpment. These various~landforms are indicated on the soil map gs are their various surJ~ce 6onfigurations (meaning knoll and depression,.triidge and swalei G combipation of these two or dissected) and the slope class. 'the landform and surface configuration are indicated by 134 l~tt,ers and tl'le slope ·class is indicated by a num.ber, for example, Ma4 m~aning a maraine of the knoll and depression type and slope class 4 (6-9% slopes). So combining the Map Unit Concept and Land,form Concept together we arrive with edits on the new maps as follows 08Ma4. So essentially what you can gather off the new map from· the symbols 081-cl.Ma4 is as follows. 0 and M indicate that the parent material is glacial till, 0 being the symbol for the Oxbow assaciatian which is developed on glacial till in the black soil zone while M informs the reader that the landform is morainic and therefare is campased bf g~acial till. "a" indicates that the moraine has a knoll and depression surface configuration where the depressions I are undrained and are therefore collection basins for excess water. 4 indicates that the slopes between the knoll and depressions are between 6 and 9%, for example, there is a 6' to 9' drop from th~ knoll per 100' along the slope. 08 is the map unit and means that the Drt~ic Black series occupies over 40% of the area, Rego and Calcareous Black series together occupy over 15% of the area and Gleys~lic series occupy over 15% of the area. the surface textures vary from loam to clay. 1-cl indicates that Knowing that thf landscape is rolling knoll and depression moraine with undrained basins and knowing the soil series you now have a meptal picture tram th,.map of a rolling area with eroded coarser textured knolls, l arable finer textured slopes and wet sloughs ar depressions. We b~li~ve ~hat such a presentation tells the users of th~ new soils maps quite a bit more about a portian of the Oxbow soils than can be interpreted off No. 12, Publish~d maps to date in Saskatchewan are not of sufficient detail for the selection of specific areas to represent specific soil profiles. for experimental wark. They are, however, of sufficient -1 d~tail ·ta give the user of soil maps the clues to where he can most ~easily obtain th~ specific soil series or profiles he wishes to re-search be it in fertility, hydrology, construction, etc. It there-fore b.cecomes a prerequisite that those engaged in research or those selecting sites for research purposes know their soil profiles and the profile relationships throughout the landscape so that their research is mraningful. It is of little value when seting up an ex-periment on glacial till in the black soil zone to select as your site a lower slbpe positi~n (probably to obtain the ben~fit of better moisture conditions) and then reporting that Oxbow soils, which are dominantly Orthic series, respond to such and such a treatment when the research has been carried out on an Oxbow Eluviated series. This important recognition of the various soil series and their productivity potential and history has become of such importance that it will_ in the' near future beco~e the basis for a more equitable ass1"ssment system in the province as outlined by Moss in his latest publication (A Revised Approach to Rating Saskatch~wan Soils). This will no doubt involve th~ setting Up by the Institute of b~nch mark sites where assessors can go to become familiar with the series distribution of a typical E3 area or a M4 area. Incidentally, sudh btnch marks will be of value to others such as yourselves. I venture to say that the assessors will know the difference in the monetary ·value of a quarter seption of El compared to an E4 pefore we know' the producti~ity potential using various rates and types of fertilizers. \ Assuming that the type of assessment evaluation outlined by Mo s s ( e • g . based on the pro d u c t i vi t y hi s to r y o f the i n d i vi d u ·a l s oi l profiles that occur throughout the different soil landscapes and soil zones in Saskatchewan) is proceeded wlth I imagine that befo~e a decade passes that farmers will not be re1questing fertility and hanagement ad~ice on Melfort or Elstow soils, but will be asking for advice on Rego black soils developed on silty lacustrine clay in climatic zone 2, or Orthic Dark Brown soil~ on silty lacustrine deposits in climatic zpne 3. The identification of the Association will not be as i~portant as the ideptification of the soil series and its utilization. As time goes· on the men on the land are be,coming more specialized and more educated, the economics of farming is forcing this on them or forcing them out of the business of farming. Those 136 remaining will be more knowledgeable and will be planning their operations with the same business incentives used by industry and will be concentrating their amendment expenditures into those portions of the land that will give them the highest returns and they will want and demand advice about inputs - therefore research workers and the trade have an obligation to foresee these condition.s and get prepared. I have often wondered in this age of moon landing w~y a fertilizer application unit has not been manufactured commercially which could be filled with various types of fertilizers each of which could be applied at various rates. The operator could then go up and down a half mile or mile strip and drill in various types and rates of ferti-lizers as he passes over the various areas occupied by different soil se~ies - would this not be more profitable than applying the same rate of fertilizer over the entire field? This would, I assume, necessitate a change in the procedure of soil sampling - instead of compositing the samples throughout the field the farmer would sample the orthic series, the eluviated series, the rego seri•s and he would get specific data on these individual segments through~ut the land-scape on his farm. Having resolved his fertility requiremerts the men on the land will probably also be requesting advice regarding alternative crops to cereals and assistance in :the production of these crops. The soil survey units in the prairie provinces need and want their reports and maps utilized, partly to assure support so that the inventory of the soil types continues to b~ a prerequisite for soil research, and also because we believe there is considerable information in present soil reports that could be utilized by land planners, engineers, farmers, researchers, etc. If researchers and consultants, etc,, cannot interpret the soil classification and identification I suggest that somewhere in their organization they employ a first class soil morphologist. I would suggest that the great and rapid strides that were made in the promotion of commercial fertilizer in 13? Western Canada were due in part to th~ big 3 ~ Wyatt~ Mit,chell a,nd Ellis (who were ljeaders in soil .classific.':J.tion and ma,p~,ing in th~eir re~pective providces) working in harmony with CiM.~. who financially I supported them re~arding the experimentation necessary to gain thp knowledge that led to the broad fertilizer recommendation that evolved for the various soil associations id the various soil zones throughout Western Canada. The task, however, is not complete -new types of soils maps, built on the foundation of these early soil workers are appe~ring. The soil associates in Manitoba are becoming better defined and delineated, as are the Soil Series in Alberta and the Map Units in pas:Katchewan. The soil surveyor must and, at present, has to assess the productivity of his field separations in his report - this unfortunately is done mainly on field observations except in specific and limited areas where detailed fertil.izer studi®s have been carried out. There are some 12 million acres of improved farm land in Manitoba, 44 million in Saskatchewan and 26 million in Alberta - surely we do not have to wonder what to do. Up to about 15 years ago members of the soil survey staff in Saskatchewan were intimately ass~ciated with fertilizer researcK -they acted mainly as a combination of lackeys ahd public relations men - their job being mainly of conning a farmer into participating in a farm field tria~ a~~ then placing a fertilizer attachment on his drill and putting in strips of various rates and types of fertilizer. The,n, of course, there was the harvesting. With thee advent of th(") I \ South Saskatchewan Irrigation scheme, and the initiation of the Basic Survey Program the soil survey lost this close relationship with the fertility research. Some fertility work has been initiated in the Swift Current survey ar~a about which Ayres will be talking, but it is unfortunate that more money is not available so that trained soil surveyors could be retained and become involved in fertility research and thus makce their contribution to the further gathering of knowledge about the most precious resource in the province, our soil. Does the Basic 138 Survey Program in Saskatchewan require a gearing up o£ research regarding crop productivity - you, Gentlemen, I believe act as both Judge and Jury regarding this matter. 

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The basic survey program and its relationship to productivity research in Saskatchewan

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