70 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS. 



application oi" water has improved tlie f?oils, and after two or three 

 years the excess of salts has seeininuly l)een entireh" i-enioved and the 

 soils left in such condition that they have been very productive. At 

 Riclifield, however, Avhere there has been the most abundant su^^ply 

 of water, an excessive quantity of water has been used oi- lias seeped 

 from the canals, so that over a considerable area the water table has 

 been raised to within 3 feet of the surface. Alkali has risen from the 

 lower depths, and lands wdiich were once reclaimed are now in far 

 worse condition than they were originally, many of them quite worth- 

 less and with no chance of recovery without adequate artitieial under- 

 drainage. This trouble is so recent and so alarming, and, furthermore, 

 seems so unnecessary, that it should serve as the strongest object 

 lesson to the irrigation farmers of the West. These facts will be 

 clearly set forth in the report to be made on the work. 



The Dor se ij part ij. — The first part of the fiscal year was spent in 

 surveying and ma^jping the soils of an area of about 400 square miles, 

 or 256,000 acres, in the Connecticut Valley, from South Glastonbury, 

 Conn., to South Iladley, Mass. The map has been published, with 

 full notes as to the character of the soils and agricultural conditions of 

 the valley, in Report No. 64 of this Department. Eleven very different 

 and distinct types of soil were recognized and mapped. Two are of 

 glacial origin and full of rocks and bowlders. The other tyi^es are of 

 alluvial origin. These include coarse gravel, too barren for crops; 

 coarse sands, from which in favorable seasons truck crops and a fine 

 wa*apper-leaf tobacco are produced; fine sand, upon which the seed- 

 leaf tobacco is so successfully gro\\Ti; still finer sand and silt, where 

 the broad-leaf tobacco is grown; the fine silt and claj^ of the meadow 

 lands, not suited to tobacco, but best adapted to corn, grass, and gen- 

 eral farming; and, lastly, soils which are so close and poorlv drained 

 that there are large areas at j)resent unfit for cultivation. The posi- 

 tion of these various soils is clearly shown in the map aceomj)anying 

 Report No. 64, on a scale of 1 inch to the mile. 



After completing this work the party went to Maryland and com- 

 pleted the survey of Cecil County, comprising an area of about 375 

 square miles, or 240,000 acres. This work was done in cooperation 

 with the State geological survey". Dr. William B. Clark, director. The 

 soils of this area are derived partly from the decay of rocks in place, 

 such as granite, gneiss, gabbro, and parth' from the sands, clays, and 

 gravels of the more recent coastal-plain formation. Here again the 

 soils range from the most barren to the most productive, with inter- 

 mediate grades adapted to different crops and agricultural interests. 

 A copy of the map has been furnished the Marjdand experiment sta- 

 tion to examine and report upon the agricultural conditions and capa- 

 l)ilities of the different soil areas. 



In both the Connecticut Valley and in Maryland we were fortunate 

 in having very accurate topographic maps of the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey for l>ase maj)S. 



In December the party w^ent to Louisiana, and in cooperation with 

 the Louisiana experiment station a survey Avas made of about 1,000 

 square miles l)etween the 3Iississippi River and the Pearl River. The 

 best map obtainable, however, Avas very inaccurate, and although 

 attempts were made to correct the map in places, it is feared that the 

 work can not be published without making a new traverse map to 

 project the Avork upon. 



In June the jjarty Avent to Lancaster County, Pa., where an area 



