62 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 





%i" wîy»(/*w "*x^ *• 







\ 



^ijRN -our 



■r"*^'\. 



The "Burn-Out" District of Southern Saskatchewan. 



parts, have a peculiar sticky clay soil. In the typical "burn-out" 

 the two types are very distinctly separated from each other, and the 

 whole surface is dotted by the clay\ hollows which vary in size from 

 three feet across to 150 feet or more across. The two soils appear to 

 make up about equal parts of the surface, but probably the hollows 

 constitute somewhat less than half the surface area. 



The farmer has to cope with a two-soil farm instead of a uniform 

 soil, as is more usual. The lack of uniformity is aggravated by the 

 great dissimilarity between the two types of soil and also because 

 after rain the water stands for a long time on the impervious clay in 

 hollows, thus retarding growth at some periods of the year, or pre- 

 venting germination in spring, or, on the other hand, increasing growth 

 in certain dry seasons. 



Beneath the four inches of fine sandy loam on the higher parts of 

 the "burn-out", the sub-soil is similar to the soil as exposed in the hol- 

 lows. So that it would appear that originally a uniform clay sub-soil 

 was covered by a uniform fine sandy loam soil to a depth of about two 

 or three inches; and that the latter has been removed in spots by the 

 action of the wind so as to expose the clay beneath, and piled up in 

 other spots. 



The people of the district suppose that prairie fires swept over 

 the country, and that here ^nd there the vegetation smouldered 



