8 SOILS OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 



good stand of clover, the organic matter content in the surface soil 

 is readily maintained or even increased, especially if a reasonably 

 short rotation of crops is practiced. 



Frequently the proper rotation of crops is seriously neglected, and 

 the ordinary succession is haphazard in the extreme. Some sem- 

 blance of rotation is still maintained over the greater part of the 

 type. Usually sod land is plowed for corn, potatoes, or even buck- 

 wheat. The following year oats constitute the almost universal 

 small-grain crop, although a small acreage of rye is grown upon some 

 farms. The land 'is then seeded to grass and allowed to remain in 

 sod as long as anything approaching a satisfactory cut of hay may 

 be secured. This includes a period ranging from three to five years 

 or more. When weeds and less valuable grasses have crowded out 

 the timothy, the land is again plowed for corn or potatoes. This 

 system results in a great preponderance of grass land and of tilled 

 land devoted to oats. 



The crop rotations should be shortened and carefully maintained 

 in regular order if the best results are to be secured from the crop- 

 ping of this soil. At all of the lower elevations and upon the better- 

 drained areas at higher altitudes corn should be planted on a part of 

 the acreage devoted to an intertilled crop and potatoes should occupy 

 the rest of the sod land plowed. The best general practice will be 

 to follow the tilled crops with oats, seeding down to the mixed 

 grasses. On dairy farms or where other cattle are fed, a part of the 

 area given to small grain should consist of a seeding to oats, beard- 

 less barley, and Canada field peas. In this case the land should 

 certainly be limed before the seeding. The crop may be used as 

 green feed to supplement the pastures or cured for hay for winter 

 feeding. A good stand of mixed grasses is usually secured when they 

 are seeded with this combination. It is practically certain to follow 

 the liming of the crop upon well-drained land. The resulting grass 

 should not be cut for hay more than two years, and the land should 

 then be plowed for the production of corn or potatoes. 



Another rotation especially well suited to farms upon which only 

 a small amount of live stock is maintained would be buckwheat, fol- 

 lowed by potatoes, followed by oats, and then for two years by grass. 

 The buckwheat, oats, and potatoes constitute sale crops, while the 

 hay may be sold in part and in part used for feeding the work stock. 

 This system requires an abundant use of mineral fertilizers with the 

 potato crop to insure the maintenance of crop-producing capacity. 



Another requirement of many thousands of acres of tne Volusia 

 silt loam is that of gradually increasing the depth of plowing, so 

 that a portion of the immediate subsoil may be reworked into the 

 surface soil and the " hardpan " layer broken up. Any immediate 

 increase in depth of plowing-by more than an inch at a time would 



