THE VOLUS1A SILT LOAM. 13 



apples might be made a paying commercial crop. The Northern Spy, 

 Twenty Ounce, and Rhode Island Greening are fairly well suited 

 to production upon this type if locations possessing a depth of soil 

 and subsoil of not less than 4 or 5 feet are chosen, with proper 

 regard, also, to the subsoil drainage and the selection of a site not 

 unduly exposed to prevalent storm winds. 



The Volusia silt loam is best adapted to the growing of oats, buck- 

 wheat, potatoes, and hay at all of the higher elevations, with corn 

 as a supplementary crop, to be cut for silage. At lower elevations 

 and upon the best-drained areas, corn may be grown for grain pro- 

 duction, and winter wheat is a fairly valuable crop. Among the 

 grasses timothy and redtop are best suited to this soil. Red clover 

 can be grown only with difficulty upon the greater proportion of the 

 areas of this type, but alsike is more readily seeded. Attention to 

 the reseeding of pastures is necessary. 



Because of the high altitudes at which this soil is developed, its 

 distance from shipping points and markets, and particularly because 

 of its definite crop adaptations, the raising of live stock, includ- 

 ing beef cattle and sheep, constitutes the best development of agri- 

 culture upon it. It is also desirable that animal husbandry should 

 constitute the chief reliance of farmers upon this soil since it is in 

 need of the restoration of organic matter, and this treatment is diffi- 

 cult or impossible under the prevalent system of oat and hay produc- 

 tion for sale away from the farm. 



FARM EQUIPMENT. 



The present farm equipment of the Volusia silt loam is too fre- 

 quently antiquated or defective. This is especially true of the areas 

 lying at high altitudes and in positions rather remote from principal 

 highways and railroads. The dwellings and barns in the majority 

 of cases were built 50 years ago, and many of them have not been 

 kept in good repair. With the aggregation of the lands of this type 

 into larger holdings and with the corresponding decrease in rural 

 population, many dwellings have been abandoned and are rapidly 

 falling into decay. Contrasted with these local conditions are areas 

 in many localities where the building equipment has been well main- 

 tained, and many comfortable farm homes exist upon the type. In 

 fact, the differences between good equipment and poor within a single 

 township are frequently very noticeable. 



Nearly all of the older homesteads, cleared and equipped in the 

 earlier days, are furnished with a one and a half story dwelling and 

 one or several of the 30 x 40 foot hay barns built in the center of the 

 old hay fields. More modern equipments include a good dairy barn 

 and sometimes a feeding shed, if sheep are still kept. 



