No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 549 



These are conditions facing this country, just being realized by 

 thoughtful persons, and how to increase crops at reduced cost is the 

 serious consideration of consumers. This is the one industry that is 

 urged and encouraged to produce excessive supplies regardless of cost 

 or the price. Other industries are not operated on this plan. 



Keturning to the text the ''Soil," there is much to consider. Soil 

 making is in constant progress. Eain, heat and frost acts as dis- 

 integrating forces liberating particles from the solid rocks, which 

 form the basis for soils of various degrees of texture according to 

 the nature of the rock from which the material is derived. There are 

 various chemical elements in the rock formations, some of which are 

 essential to plant life to a small extent like lime, iron, magnesia, 

 potash, soda, phosphoric acid and nitrogen, in addition to silica the 

 most abundant of soil constituents. 



There is probably no state having a greater variety of soils than 

 the old Keystone, and certainly no better farmers. The folding of the 

 rocks east of Allegheny mountains brings to view thirteen geological 

 divisions and many strata. The Delaware. Lehigh, Schuylkill, Sus- 

 quehanna and minor water courses cut squarely across the anthracite 

 coal basin, with the Pottsville- Conglomerate, Mauch Chunk Eed, 

 Pocono Sandstone, Catskill, Chemung, and others of the Devonian 

 System, followed by the Silurian, New Red sandstone, granite and 

 traps. 



There is little uniformity of soil until the Silurian south of the 

 Blue mountain is reached, where the Hudson River, Utica shale and 

 limestone valleys spread over considerable areas. The New Red, the 

 latest formation, extends over various counties mixed with the traps 

 from Reading to Philadelphia. Some sections in Northampton, Mon- 

 roe, Carbon, Luzerne, Columbia, Montour, Northumberland and Ly- 

 coming are partly covered with glacial drift and the edge of the 

 Moraine, with is boulders, sand and clay of various degrees of agri- 

 cultural value. 



In the glaciated district, the old lake bottoms and swamps are very 

 fertile where drainage can be effected and on the elevations the soil 

 is generally productive, excelling all others for fine fruit of best 

 quality. Spy, Baldwin, King and Greening apples grow to perfection, 

 and other fruits are successfully produced. The great potato dis- 

 tricts in Maine, New York, Michigan and Wisconsin are on drift 

 soil, an ideal condition of soil and climate for potatoes. 



Northwest and west, the same conditions exist in Tioga, Potter, 

 Warren. Crawford, Venango, Butler, Lawrence and Beaver counties 

 where the soil is more uniform, resting on horizontal rocks of the 

 bituminous coal, with the mountain limestone. 



The anthracite coal field contains no soil of value excepting where 

 the Mauch Chunk red appears in valleys, like the Conyngham, Cata- 

 wissa, Lykens and Quakake. The various red soils, Mauch Chunk, 

 Catskill, Clinton and Mesozoic or New Red produce fair to very good 

 soil according to depth and texture. 



The Devonian and part of the Silurian systems between the first 

 (Blue") and second mountain has some narrow strips of good soil, but 

 is quite various on account of the many strata standing on edge 

 coming to the surface composed largely of shale. The soil on hills 

 is commonly shallow and leach^y while the bottoms consist of n col^ 



