WATER SOILS. 



643 



"It is not to be supposed that the crops given above are tlie only ones grown upon 

 the several soils; still less that they are the only crops adapted to such soils. 



"Where corn is given as an important crop it may well be that wheat and cotton 

 can also be produced. The classification of crops is given more to show the relative 

 agricultural strength of the land than as an indication of the actual acreage of each 

 crop. It should he observed also that climate influences in a very marked degree 

 the cn^) value of lands, and a soil having the same texture may l)e adapted to cotton 

 in the South, to wheat in the North, and to alfalfa or sugar beets iu the far West. It 

 is iKjt to be assumed, either, that the percentages given will be maintained upon the 

 extension of the soil survey into other areas." 



Soil analyses, W. Freak and C. P. Beistle {Pcnnsylvanln Sta. lijit. J 901, jiji. 137- ' 

 17^). — Analyses of 2 samples of Cuban tobacco soils (surface and subsoil, manured 

 and unmanured) from the vicinity of Havana, and one of a mica schist soil from 

 Delaware County, Pa., are reported and discussed in detail. 



The Cuban soils are of a deep red color and were derived from chalk or limestone 

 formations of a recent geologic period. Their specific gravity was somewhat above 

 the normal for clays, and was much less in the manured than in the unmanured 

 soil. The mechanical analyses indicate that they should be classed as sandy loams, 

 altliough treatment with a deflocculating agent like 4 per cent ammonia resulted in 

 a complete breaking down of the "sandy" aggregate into the finest clay, the sandy 

 or loamy condition being due apparently to the flocculating action of the lime and 

 magnesia i^resent. The results of the chemical analyses are given in the following 

 table: 



Chemical composition of Cuban soils (water-free). 



"A general summary of the characteristic qualities of the [virgin] Cuban soils is 

 briefly as follows: These lands are deeper than most American soils devoted to cigar 

 tobacco; they are nearly as porous as the Connecticut sandy soils, but becau.se of their 

 high content of humus and oxids of iron and aluminum, should show a much greater 



18909— No. 7—03 3 



