Alteration of low-powered peat soil properties in course of long-term agricultural use

In the conditions of the Republic of Belarus there was presented an evaluation of organic soil properties changing in the course of long-term agricultural use according to the data of a long-term field experiment founded in 1960 by the member of the Academy of Sciences S.G. Skoropanov and carried out by Polesye experimental station of Ameliorative Agriculture and Meadow Cultivation (Luninetsky district, Brest region). The results of 50-year research show that drained low-powered peat soil can be referred to peat soil on the indicator 'organic substance content' (more than 50% of soil weight) only when the peat layer depth is more than 30 sm and when this soil is used for permanent grasses, or the depth is not less than 40 sm and this soil is used in arable crop rotation, that approximately corresponds to a root-inhabited layer of these crops. It is shown, that with 65–70% of ash content in organic soil the amounts of organic and mineral elements are equal. This fact can be considered a proof that 70% of organic soil ash content is a line dividing peaty-mineral soils with morphological characteristics of peat and post-peat soils without these characteristics.