THIRTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XH 641 



While hog farming offers an inviting field — probably never was the 

 outlook so bright for continued high prices^ — I would advise against any 

 man's undertaking to establish such a business unless he has available 

 land for pasture or is so situated as to be able to grow soiling crops for 

 hog forage throughout the growing season. Of equal importance is the 

 necessity for having perfect drainage, and by all means remember, "Suc- 

 cess cannot attend the enterprise nnless you have a liking for the hog." 



It is in the United States that the porcine species has acquired his 

 greatest importance and reached his highest development and it is in the 

 corn belt that he thrives as in no other country in the world. 



A SOIL SURVEY IS NEEDED IN IOWA. 



W. ir. STEVE?CSON IN FARMER & BREEDER. 



I am glad to take this opportunity to explain to the readers of Farmer 

 and Breeder just what constitutes a Soil Survey, and to point out how 

 such a survey should help every farmer in the state with the solution 

 of his soil problems, however difficult they may appear to be at first. 



Ten or twelve years ago, a soil survey was a new line of work. Few if 

 any, agricultural experiment stations at that time were making surveys, 

 even to a limited extent. The Bureau of Soils of the Department of Agri- 

 culture, was doing some excellent pioneer work. At the present a goodly 

 number of states, through their respective experiment stations, are car- 

 rying on detail soil surveys. This work has proved to be of such funda- 

 mental value to agriculture and is looked upon with such favor by 

 farmers and business men alike, that it is not strange that there is now 

 a widespread and popular demand for the introduction or extension of 

 soil surveys in nearly all the states of the Middle West. 



A detail soil survey of any given area, for instance a county, consists 

 essentially of indicating on a map the location and extent of the different 

 soil types, and in giving the total plant food content of these types. A 

 soil type is an area of land within the boundaries of which the soil pos- 

 sesses more or less definite characteristics. Among these may be listed 

 the following: (1) the geological origin of the soil; (2) the lay of the 

 land; (3) the depth and character of the various strata or zones of soil, 

 namely the surface, subsurface, and subsoil; (4) the physical or mechan- 

 ical composition of the soil in these different strata, as the percentages 

 of clay, silt, sand, and gravel which they contain; (5) the texture, plas- 

 ticity, granulation, porosity, etc.; (6) the color of the strata; (7) the 

 drainage; (8) agricultural value, based upon the power of the soil to 

 produce crops; (9) native vegetation; and (10) content of plant food 

 and the presence or absence of acids or other detrimental constituents. 



In the case of an accurate soil survey, the exact location of every road, 

 stream and railroad, is determined by the surveyors and recorded on a 

 map. Each section of land, or square mile, is divided into forty-acre 

 plots on the map before work in the field is started, and then each ten- 

 acre tract is inspected by the surveyor for the purpose of determining 

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