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Plant analysis has become an integral part of most agronomic experimentation and is used to document and verify treatment effects. It is also used at the farm level by dealers and crop consultants to monitor production fields. Many private and public laboratories extend their services to dealers and farmers alike, and field use has greatly increased to confirm deficiency symptoms, diagnose problems, and search for the critical path to improved yields and profitability in crop production. This chapter covers the basic principles and relationships involved in plant analysis. Plant analysis is based on the principle that the concentration of an element or nutrient within the plant or one of its parts is an integral value of all of the factors that have interacted to affect plant growth, including the availability of the element. Much research has involved determining the optimum concentration of essential and beneficial elements for a given crop under experimental conditions.