What are essential texts for someone interested in agronomy?

Question

specifically soil sciences

Answer 1

Log on to http://www.usda.gov .

They have many publications and guides about soil classification and soil indexes.

Answer 2

Because that is one of those topics that is so well studied, there are a huge number of tomes available, all very good. If you take university courses, you will have a number of reference books that will be required and generally, those who take the courses keep the books. Some sell them back to the university book stores and they are resold at a huge discount. So, if you have not taken the course, go on line to the universities that boast a good agriculture program, and find out what the required books are. Or just go to the nearest university (with agriculture programs) and go to the book store. Also, if you have a title from your on line research, look on EBay.

Most of the information you need will be on line in different web sites and if you type into "search" a 3 or 4 word criteria then you will have a lot of info to go with at no cost (compared to reference books).

Answer 3

I have 2 degrees in agronomy but I don't recall ever having a text book that I would call essential.  I took a statistics course and the textbook for that was like THE BIBLE for statistics but none of the soil and crop science textbooks stand out.   Most of the classes I took did not even use a textbook, it was all done from handouts made by the professor.