124 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



as the soil low in organic matter; it tends to prevent surface washings 

 which is an important consideration on the more rolling lands in this 

 State, and by its decay it breaks down the minerals of the soil con- 

 taining the elements of plant food phosphorous and potassium, and so 

 putting these in such a form that the plant can get them. In short, or- 

 ganic matter obtained largely and most easily by means of a good rota- 

 tion, is a very important means in the hands of the land manager where- 

 b}' he is enabled to get out of the soil the things of which crops are made. 

 It is the business of the farmer then to see to it that his soil is well sup- 

 plied wih these minerals containing phosphorous and potassium, and 

 then, by a practical system of farming, to work out each year an amount 

 sufficient for large crop yields. 



I want to make some very general comparisons between Illinois soils 

 and Missouri soils, to show, roughly, the location of similar types in the 

 two States. In general, our soils, as are yours, are glacial or loessial in 

 character. We have in the southern part of Illinois in twenty-five coun- 

 ties east of St. Louis, a so-called "white clay." This is a gray silt soil, usu- 

 ally ocupying flat areas, is not naturally under-drained, its subsoil being 

 more or less nearly impervious. The lighter and more level prairie soil of 

 Northeast Missouri is evidenth' quite similar to this soil. In the extreme 

 southern part of Illinois we have seven counties of an unglaciated, but 

 loess-covered soil. This is a reddish yellow silt loam and occupies more 

 or less broken land. You have considerable of this kind of soil south ot 

 the Missouri river; it is locally called "red clay.'' Then, in northwest 

 and north Central Missouri, you have in the darker prairie soils types 

 very similar to the corn belt soils of Central and Southern Illinois. The 

 most common type is a gently rolling brown silt loam, naturally well 

 surface-drained. In addition there are in Illinois, and possibly in Mis- 

 souri, larger or smaller areas of peaty swamp soils and sandy soils. These 

 similarities are, of course, very general. I think that it will be well for 

 have them in mind, however, while wc consider some definite results ob- 

 tained on Illinois soils. 



In our State during the last four years, we have analyzed chemically 

 hundreds of samples of these different types of soils ; we have grown 

 crops upon them as they exist in twenty-five diflferent parts of the State, 

 and we have grown crops upon smaller amounts of the soils in the pot- 

 culture laboratory at Urbana. As general results, we find in the gray 

 silt loam and in the brown silt loam enough potassium in the first seven 

 inches of each acre to grow a hundred bushels of corn each year for 

 more than a thousand years, and the supply increases as we go into the 

 subsoil. On the other hand, on the brown silt loam sixty, and on the 



