What is added to the soil, and which soil suits which crop?

Brief

This lesson asks you to examine the types of soil found in Ontario and the crops each suits. The museum offers one medieval farming handbook that sorted land into types. It has nothing to offer on substances added to soil, which your class must study elsewhere. Ontario's own soils your class must study in Ontario. ¹

How do you know the soil is healthy?

Compare what you see on the surface of the soil with what you find beneath, and what you find in the soil with what grows in it. Which evidence do you trust most, and why?

Go deeper

Ibn Bassal sorted land into ten kinds ². Soft land, for example, is described through open pores admitting air and water; heavy land through changing behaviour in heat and rain ³. Colour alone is not enough, the record says: assessment varies with the subsurface, season, work and the land's history ³. His soil chapter warns that the surface can differ from what lies beneath ³. The record adds that his ten kinds are not a modern laboratory standard ².

Think about it

Ibn Bassal warns that the surface of the soil can differ from what lies beneath. If you could check only one thing before planting, would you trust what you see on top or what you find below, and why?

Into the museum

Ibn Bassal's soil, water and crop assessment: the ten kinds of land and what he noticed about each.
Ibn Bassal: the Andalusi agronomist, with the places he worked.
Agriculture in Islam: how a modern author presents farming as a source of food.

Try this

Take a spoonful of soil from the schoolyard and one from a plant pot, and compare them by sight and touch. Then read the record Ibn Bassal's linked soil, water and crop assessment and see which of his descriptions is closest to what you found.