Carbon in soil plays a major role in soil quality and is an integral part of the atmospheric-terrestrial carbon cycle thus partially mitigating the anthropomorphic greenhouse gas CO₂ pollutant. Accurate balances and changes in soil carbon stocks are needed for a variety of reasons. However, current state-of-art in soil carbon analysis uses a geotom (shovels) for core sampling or for excavating large volumes, which is time consuming, labor intensive, provides point information, and is destructive. To overcome some of these issues we introduce an instrument with spectroscopic quality for monitoring soil carbon and other elements non-destructively in static and scanning modes. The instrument is based on gamma ray spectroscopy induced by inelastic neutron scattering (INS), thermal neutron capture and delayed neutron activation. The INS instrument mounted on a cart hovers about 30 cm above the ground and probes a soil volume, depending on soil conditions that is about 0.5 cubic meters. When used in a scanning mode it provides the true mean value of the field. The depth sampled by the INS is about 25 cm and again depends on soil conditions. The response of the system is highly specific and linear with the elemental abundance in soil. Two static and a scanning measurements, using the INS instrument, were performed in a long-term no-till production field in Beltsville MD. Following INS measurements soil profile was sampled at the same sites at 0-5, 5-10, 10-20, and 20-30 cm.  Within a 30 by 30 m plot 9 sampling points were taken within the sampling area. These results are compared against classical core samples and mean field estimates. Soil was measured for bulk density and soil C by dry combustion and then integrated to calculate a C mass. These measurements are compared across three sampling areas within the field.