THE APPLICATION OF MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS TO SOIL STUDIES

Allocation of a profile to a predetermined group is normally made by the surveyor in the field but alternatively a computer can be programmed to process data and make the allocation. Differences arising from these procedures may be due to differences in either the information used by computer and surveyor or the rules used to analyse the data. There is a third method, in which the surveyor, using the same data as the computer, provides a link between the other two. Comparison, in general terms, of possible results from these three methods is supported by a study on profiles from the Riverina, N.S.W. Using data for a standard set of variables and allocating into one of three groups, misallocation of 4 per cent of a test sample of forty-six profiles resulted from both the computer method and the surveyor in the laboratory as compared with the surveyor's allocation of the same profiles on morphological properties in the field. This concurrence between the surveyor and the computer method allows the skill of the surveyor to be extended by way of the computer to technicians.