400 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



vai'iet}' is besi <i;ro\vii on docj) riiahle loams and heavy sandy loams 

 with loamy subsoils. Fai-lhcr south heavier soils are better. I hope 

 you will soon lind as a result of thorough tests a suftieient number 

 of good commercial sorts so you will not need to use Baldwin, and 

 I believe that in time this will be done. It is well not to try to 

 beat the other fellow a^t this job, and that is about what you are 

 trying to do in growing Baldwins. 



Your President asked me to talk about local conditions so far as 

 possible and this covers, 1 think, your most important varieties. 



To illustrate further the range of soil adai)tations to specific uses 

 it may be worth while to mention the effect of soil influence on 

 some other crops. In the Connecticut V^alley of Massachusetts and 

 Connecticut, for instance, the character of the soil has been the 

 determining factor in crop selection. You will pardon me, I am 

 sure, if I select to illustrate conditions there, my father's fju'm where 

 most of my life was spent until 21 years old, and where I have 

 been able to follow closely the cropping conditions and management 

 until the present time. It is a long rectangular farm that is typical 

 of soil conditions over a broad scope of territory. 



The soils are all alluvial, the range in elevation is in only one 

 case as much as 15 feet, and within any one of the soil divisions 

 the surface is nearly level. 



The fine sandy loam at the west end of the farm is the best type 

 of soil for wrapper-leaf tobacco, though worthless for the produc- 

 tion of filler leaf, hence a normal price is |150.00 to $200.00, or 

 even more, per acre. It is also good onion soil but brings no more 

 profitable returns from that crop than the loam at the east end 

 of the farm which, with the same culture treatment gives a cigar 

 leaf so much thicker and poorer in quality that no one longer per- 

 sists in trying to grow tobacco on it. Hence, a relative price for this 

 soil type is $100.00 an acre, where the location is in every way equal 

 to the other. The silt loam in the middle of the farm is worthless 

 for tobacco, mediocre for onions, and so used almost exclusively 

 for corn and grass. As a result its price is $50.00 to $75.00 an 

 acre. 



It should be noted, too, that the best of the tobacco lands con- 

 tain the very low organic content of 1.5 to 2.75 per cent., notwith- 

 standing plentiful applications of stable manure. Hence the nat- 

 ural adaption of that soil does not depend, it need hardly be said, 

 on the organic content; neither may other soils of that locality, 

 such as the loam at the east end of the farm mentioned, be so 

 amended by the addition of humus as to produce leaf satisfactory 

 in quality. Yet it is just as favorable as the first for the growth of 

 cigar leaf in every respect save that of texture and structure. Here, 

 then, is a very definite illustration of how the physical character 

 of the soil has not only been the determining factor in the selec- 

 tion of specific crops for the different types of soil on a given farm, 

 and for a linear distance of at least 75 miles in two states, but 

 these specific adaptations to special crops have in turn been the 

 principal basis of land valuation there for the last half century. 



This case is not unique. There are many cases in different states 

 which illustrate the same principle of soil adaptation and definite 



