163 THE SOILS OF CALVERT COUNTY 



crops like tomatoes, cabbage, green peas, and other crops such as are 

 produced for the purpose of canning in other regions. In addition to 

 these special crops it is desirable soil for rather general farming. Other 

 conditions to be discussed later have prevented much specialization as 

 to crops and the Norfolk loam is not producing crops to its best advantage. 



The Leonardtown loam is a heavier type of soil. The yellow, silty 

 soil is underlain by a clayey subsoil of peculiar structure. Only small 

 areas of this soil are found in the northern part of the county but a 

 large part of the upland to the south is covered by this type. It is quite 

 extensively timbered with oak and pitch pine. The cultivated areas 

 produce small crops of wheat and corn and generally an inferior grade 

 of tobacco. The soil is closely comparable in its texture with 

 the well-known fertile clay soils of the valley of Virginia and of the 

 limestone areas of Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and other regions. These 

 soils are noted for the crops of wheat and grass produced, while the 

 similar Leonardtown loam is largely abandoned to forest growth. There 

 is probably no single cause for this difference. 



The causes are partly due to economic and social conditions and partly 

 to the faulty agricultural methods. The limestone soils in their natural 

 state contain little or no lime as they are formed from the residue of 

 the decay of beds of limestone, but they have a compact heavy texture. The 

 Leonardtown loam contains little lime as it is made up of particles of 

 sand, silt, and clay long waslied liy water before being de|)osited in 

 their present position. The limestone soils are frequently treated with 

 top-dressings of lime burned by the farmers themselves from the under- 

 lying rock. Very few, if any, of the Leonardtown loam areas have been 

 treated with lime in recent years, since copious liming injures the quality 

 of the tobacco crop. A very simple test shows that the Leonardtown 

 loam is decidedly an acid soil either in cultivated fields or in the forest 

 areas. This acid tendency, particularly harmful to leguminous crops 

 like peas and clover, could be easily counteracted by the application of 

 lime. Moreover, the pale yellow color of this soil denotes a deficiency in 

 organic material, which should be supplied in the form of stable manures 

 or of green crops plowed under. Both barnyard manure and green 



