PRINCIPAL DRY-FARMING REGIONS 

 LITTLE COLORADO DRAINAGE AREA 



While soils of the Little Colorado drainage area are quite 

 variable, they may be divided roughly into four classes : river bot- 

 tom, first mesa, variegated intermediate, and timber soils. A com- 

 paratively large area of fairly uniform soil of each type may be 

 found. 



The river bottom soils are deep and very fertile, but often con- 

 tain excessive amounts of alkali which in some cases render them 

 valueless. Usually river bottom soils occur as clay loams with 

 occasional patches of clay or adobe soils. The fine texture and lack 

 of humus causes them to crust and bake during dry weather, and 

 often they are hard to till except when they contain the optimum 

 percentage of moisture. Being deep and fine, soils of this type re- 

 tain moisture very well, though water penetration is not rapid. 



Soils of lighter texture are found in extensive areas, notably at 

 Woodruff, Winslow, and St. Johns, and the broad mesas north of 

 Holbrook and Adamana. These lands, classed as first mesa soils, 

 are easier to till because of their lighter texture, and are more 

 readily permeable but less retentive of moisture. No alkali is found 

 in the first mesa soils, which have resulted from the decomposition 

 of red and brown sandstones. The fertility is not so high as that 

 of the bottom lands. 



The variegated intermediate soils occur at the mouths of num- 

 erous draws and arroyos, and in little valleys along small creeks 

 between low rolling hills. Because of their diverse origin varie- 

 gated intermediate soils are not uniform and usually occur in small 

 tracts, notably areas of silt soil of considerable depth in the Dry 

 Lake region, at Cottonwood Wash, and on Silver Creek, all in the 

 vicinity of Snowflake. Soils on the higher elevations in this vicinity 

 are too shallow for dry-farming, usually being from one to four feet 

 deep. Thus, the large, gradually rising region extending southward 

 from Holbrook to Shumway is characterized by a shallow soil, only 

 the wider valleys containing soil adapted to dry-farming. Except 

 for grayish brown silt soils near Snowflake the prevailing color is 

 reddish brown as a result of decomposition of sandstone capped by 

 a thin veneer of limestone. Mechanical and chemical analyses of 



