Missouri State Board of Horticulture. 367 



metal. It is the rarest of the useful soils and is the best. Prof. 

 M. F. Miller, chief of the agronomy department, University of 

 Missouri, has said that this soil is, in his opinion, the best of 

 the world's agricultural soils. 



This soil is found in only three places in the world: First, 

 a small deposit near the river Rhine in Germany; second, a 

 much larger deposit extending along the Missouri river two to 

 thirty miles in width from Omaha to St. Louis, and along the 

 Mississippi a short distance above and below St. Louis; and 

 third, deposit in Northern China. These unique soil deposits 

 are the result of glacial action, and are believed to have been 

 formed by winds that prevailed during the time of arid climate 

 that followed the glacial period. 



This soil is the world's best fruit soil. There are soils in South 

 Missouri, in the great Ozark fruit region, which are quite as good 

 for some of the fruits as far as actual results are concerned, but 

 as compared to all other soils, the extraordinary physical struc- 

 ture of the loess soil, allowing penetration of roots to unbeliev- 

 able depths and perfect underdrainage as well as perfect mois- 

 ture supply in dry weather, places this soil first as a fruit soil. 

 As regards the plant food in this soil. Dr. J. C. Whitten, chief 

 of the horticultural department of the University of Missouri, 

 tells us that on his farm near the Missouri river, about eight 

 miles from Columbia, the dirt from the bottom of his cistern, 

 25 feet below the surface, was used to fill in the low place in 

 his garden, and that it produced quite as good vegetables as 

 the surface soil, and we know what this surface soil will do. 

 Twenty to two hundred feet deep, rich in plant food to the 

 bottom, perfect physical structure, this soil ranks as the best 

 fruit soil of the world and distinguishes our Missouri river 

 valley as the heaviest producing of all apple districts. This 

 district, then, is made distinct from the rest of our middle west 

 fruit districts by this marvelous loess soil. 



We may recognize this soil by its peculiar character which 

 enables it to stand up in perpendicular walls where cut into. 

 This is due to its homogeneous physical structure, which allows 

 water to seep out between particles and yet be held together 

 by the countless "shoulders" caused by its many "jagged" 

 edges. Soils built by processes of erosion have not these 

 'jagged" edges, and only the true loess, which is simply crushed 

 rock, will be found in perpendicular cliffs in our rainy climate. 

 This peculiar characteristic accounts for our being able to cul- 



