Soils: An Introduction

By Croy, Acacia

Soils: An Introduction by Michael J. Singer and Donald N. Munns, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, 2005, 464 pages, paper cover, $68.80

Soils: An Introduction provides students with a comprehensive overview of soil science. The book is easy to comprehend and is written at a level for beginning university students. The book contains 16 chapters that provide an overview of fundamental topics necessary for understanding soil science. Soils: An Introduction, is organized for students to easily identify the important parts of soil and understand how they function together. Each chapter is outlined in the table of contents and again at the beginning of each reading section.

Chapters are linked by providing an overview of the topic, and how that topic relates to the previous chapters and topics covered. At the end of each chapter there is a short summary, study questions, additional reading suggestions, web resources, and supplemental information highlighting the main topics covered. Supplemental references are included in the form of a conversion chart for converting nonmetric to SI units, periodic table of the elements, and a thorough glossary.

Each topic in the book is simplified and easy to comprehend. There are a many figures, tables, as well as black and white photographs to complement each subject. Inserts on special topics, math problems, and field equipment are provided to enhance the learning and understanding of each topic.

Soils: An Introduction, seeks to reach a broad audience by encompassing multiple soil uses which can be a difficult task. The book does a good job at relating soils to nonagricultural majors by including a chapter entitled “Nonagricultural Uses Of Soils” which discusses waste disposal, engineering properties, and construction. However, the book is somewhat lacking in information provided for private and commercial turf management.

The limitations in the book are the sequential order of the chapters, minimal chemical names provided, and lack of color photographs. Each individual chapter was well organized, but the chapters are not in sequential order. I found myself skipping around and not reading the chapters in chronological order. This could be more of a personal preference, and could easily be overcome by reorganizing the chapters to meet the readers’ specific needs.

Second, a lot of chemical names were not provided for the compounds. This can create difficultly for students who do not have a strong background in chemistry. While reading the chapters, they cannot connect the chemical names with the correct chemical formulas. This could be corrected by providing a chart listing the commonly used chemical names with their chemical formulas.

Third, there is a lack of colored photographs that demonstrate structure, sub-horizons, and soil orders. This helps keep the price of the book down, but does not provide many options for viewing photographs in the book. This lack of photographs makes it difficult for the reader to become familiar with a variety of soil types. Additional photographs are available at a variety of web sites to assist the students in recognizing soil types and features.

In summary, the authors provide an introductory level of information on soil science. The book is easy to read and comprehend. Although the book has some limitations, these can be easily overcome by providing the reader with supplemental information.

Acacia Croy

Adjunct Soil Science Instructor

Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City

Copyright North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Dec 2006

(c) 2006 NACTA Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.