Book excerpt: Soil as a medium for plant growth;soil as a natural body;soil physicalproperties;tillage and traffic;soil water; soil water management;soil erosion;soil ecology;soil organic matter;soil mineralogy;soil chemistry;plant-soil macronutrient relations;micronutrients and toxic elements;fertilizers;soil fertility evaluation and fertilizer use;soil genesis;soil taxonomy;soil geography and land use;soil surveys and land-use interpretations;land and the world food supply;texture by the field method;types and classes of soil structure;prefixes and their connotations for great group names.