14 SOILS OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 



quently hitched behind the gang plow, and both harrowing and 

 plowing are performed at a single operation. Where horsepower is 

 employed the harrow follows the plow with an independent hitch of 

 four to six horses. Seeding is accomplished by horse-drawn seeders, 

 and practically no other tillage of the crop is attempted. The header 

 or grain binder constitutes the principal grain-harvesting machine 

 upon each of the smaller-sized farms, while the larger farms in 

 addition also maintain the thrashing machine with blower attach- 

 ment. Many steam engines employed for thrashing the grain burn 

 the grain straw as their principal fuel. 



Within later years disk plows and disk harrows are to some extent 

 displacing the gang plow and the spike-tooth or spring-tooth harrow. 



Upon farms in the more southern areas where the Fargo clay loam 

 has been encountered, dairy barns and dairy equipment are also 

 found, and there is an increasing interest in the development of dairy 

 husbandry. In general, however, the type is devoted to grain growing 

 and preeminently to the production of spring wheat. 



SUMMARY. 



The Fargo clay loam is the great spring- wheat soil of the Red River 

 Valley of the North and of certain other areas. It has been formed 

 in the beds of extinct glacial lakes. 



The surface soil is a dark-gray to black, heavy loam, well sup- 

 plied with organic matter, and frequently somewhat mucky in char- 

 acter in depressed and poorly drained areas. The subsoil is a stiff 

 partially stratified clay loam which may be either dark -brown, drab, 

 or blue. 



The surface of the Fargo clay loam is almost absolutely level over 

 large areas, having a slope of 1 foot to 2 feet to the mile in the ma- 

 jority of cases and an extreme slope of 5 to 6 feet to the mile. Low 

 undulations and swells are separated by broad level areas or slight 

 depressions. The higher lying tracts possess fairly good natural 

 drainage, while the level and depressed areas require the construction 

 of open ditches and the installation of tile drainage to be brought 

 under cultivation. 



The altitude of the Fargo clay loam varies from about 975 feet 

 above tide on the Canadian boundary line in the valley of the Red 

 River of the North to altitudes lying between 1,100 and 1,200 feet 

 above tide in the more southern portion of the Red River Valley, and 

 in the separate areas where the type has been developed in other 

 smaller extinct glacial lakes. 



The Fargo clay loam is developed under cool temperate condi- 

 tions of climate which preclude the production of certain general 

 farm crops prevalent upon more southern prairie soils, but which 

 favor the production of good yields of spring wheat of excellent mill- 

 ing quality. 



