A method of fertility evaluation for paddy soils

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Abstract
In an effort to work out a method for soil fertility evaluation and grading, principal component analysis was applied to 23 items of laboratory data for 41 Malayan paddy soil samples. As many of the characters used were not only mutually correlated but also relevant to the base status and nutrient retaining capability of the soil, the compound character extracted as the first principal component was such that it could duly be called the chemical potentiality of the soil. As the first approximation towards soil fertility classification, a chemical potentiality grading was established for the sample soils based on the first principal component score. The result seemed quite reasonable, placing those soils developed on juvenile marine clay deposits at the top of the ranking, while those either sandy or heavily weathered at the bottom. The greatest drawback to the present method lies, however, with the fact that the chemical potentiality, as defined in this paper, is unable to take adequately into consideration the balance of nutrients.

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