Excerpts from the report: The proper management and treatment of salt-affected soils depends upon accurate knowledge of the nature and severity of the salt problem at hand. Inadequate information may lead farmers to plant salt-sensitive crops where they should plant salt-tolerant ones, or to fail to apply chemical amendments where they are needed. Visual observations of soils and of plants growing on them are rarely sufficient to diagnose a salinity problem adequately. Reliable diagnosis of salinity requires the right kind of laboratory tests on samples that are truly representative of soils. Such sampling and testing involves some time and moderate expenses, but experience has shown that this procedure pays good dividends.