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Ten soil profiles were selected from the major soil bodies under development for irrigated agriculture in Western Kern County for examination of properties and soil-forming processes in relation to crop capability and pretreatment needs. The soils were carefully examined in the field and sampled by genetic horizons for detailed examination of chemical-mineralogy properties. Unusually high amounts of salinity, alkali, and boron were found in subsurface horizons of practically all soils. Saturation extracts of some soils contained also unusually large concentrations of copper, iron, molybdenum, zinc, lithium, and selenium. The clays were found to be almost exclusively montmorillonitic. All soils contained lime and gypsum. Boron sorption-desorption characteristics were associated with hydroxy iron compounds rather than with aluminum. The relation between sorbed and soluble boron was adequately described mathematically with a Langmuir isotherm equation.