The Application of Spectrochemical Methods to Agricultural Problems

In agricultural research we are confronted with problems relating to soils and rocks, fertilizers, plants, animal products and related materials as diverse as natural waters and micro-organisms. The analytical problem is to devise techniques which are applicable to all such materials without too drastic modification. At the Macaulay Institute for Soil Research, spectrochemical investigations have been in progress for the past twenty years; are, spark and flame emission as well as ultraviolet and infrared absorption methods are at present in use. This communication presents an outline of this work.