8 SOILS OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 



LIMITATIONS UPON SPECIAL CROPS. 



Because of its fine texture, dense structure, and rolling to sloping 

 topography ; because of its considerable altitude above sea level and 

 its consequent cool climatic surroundings, the Cecil clay is not a soil 

 well suited to the production of special crops. These same charac- 

 teristics, however, constitute it one of the strongest and best of the 

 general farming soils of the southeastern United States. It is so well 

 suited to the production of the general farm crops that the introduc- 

 tion of special crops is hardly necessary. 



EXTENT OP OCCUPATION. 



Probably all except the rougher and more broken areas of the Cecil 

 clay and some limited areas where the residual bowlders still exist 

 have been occupied at one time or another by active tillage operations. 

 In many instances the soil has been cleared, cultivated, the surface 

 soil eroded away, and the type again occupied by timber growth two 

 or three times since the first agricultural occupation of the eastern 

 United States. At the present time considerably more than 60 per 

 cent of the total extent of the Cecil clay is probably occupied for the 

 production of farm crops. In the more northern regions only those 

 areas of the Cecil clay which are too steep or too stony for cultivation 

 are unoccupied and these are usually producing a forest growth which 

 is of great value to the farms upon which it occurs. In the more 

 southern regions where erosion has been unchecked, a greater propor- 

 tion of the type remains unoccupied from year to year, but even in 

 these locations it is probable that 50 per cent of the Cecil clay is 

 annually tilled. 



The areas of the type occur in well-drained regions whose climatic 

 surroundings are favorable to plant growth and favorable to the 

 health of the owners of the soil. It has, therefore, been sought at all 

 times as a basis for profitable agricultural occupation. 



CROP ADAPTATIONS. 



The Cecil clay is marked by uniformity in crop adaptation to such 

 a degree that only variation in climatic surroundings and in the 

 traditional farm practices of the different regions give rise to any 

 great variation in crop production upon the type. In all regions 

 from Pennsylvania to Alabama corn is produced upon this soil. The 

 variation in yield in the different locations is marked. In the more 

 northern areas where the Cecil clay is developed, particularly in 

 Maryland and Pennsylvania, it is esteemed one of the best corn 

 soils of the section. Depending upon the care with which the land 

 is prepared and the crop is tended, corn produces from 30 to 70 

 bushels of shelled corn per acre in both Maryland and Pennsylvania. 



