THE MARSHALL, SILT LOAM. 11 



In Illinois the yields of corn upon the Marshall silt loam have been 

 stated in the various soil survey reports to range from 40 to 80 

 bushels per acre, and it is probable that the average yield for the type 

 within the State will be in the neighborhood of 50 bushels per acre. 

 In Indiana, corn yields from 40 to 60 bushels with an average near the 

 50-bushel mark for this type. In Iowa the yields are practically the 

 same and the average is maintained at 47 to 50 bushels. In Kansas 

 the range is a little wider owing to variations in climatic conditions, 

 and the yields are stated at 25 to 50 bushels with an average in the 

 vicinity of 35 bushels per acre for the Marshall silt loam. In northern 

 Missouri the yields range from 30 to 80 bushels per acre with an 

 average yield for the Marshall silt loam in the vicinity of 40 bushels. 

 The yields in Nebraska are almost identical with those in Kansas for 

 similar climatic conditions. 



Thus, both the high average yield per acre and the extremely wide 

 development of the Marshall silt loam mark the type as the dominant 

 corn soil of the great "Corn Belt." 



Many different varieties of the dent corn are grown, and each 

 locality possesses favorite varieties which have been proved by 

 experience to be well suited to the attendant climatic conditions and 

 to be well suited to production upon this soil. 



Oats constitute the principal small -grain crop grown upon the 

 Marshall silt loam east of the Missouri River. The oats are seeded 

 upon the land previously occupied by corn, upon the "stalk land," as 

 the prairie farmers designate it. The acreage devoted to oats is con- 

 siderably less than that devoted to corn, but the yields are in all cases 

 excellent. It is practically a universal observation in the soil surveys 

 which have included large areas of the Marshall silt loam in the 

 Central Prairie region that the yield of oats per acre is usually about 

 the same average yield as that of corn, thus ranging from 40 to 60 or 

 70 bushels per acre with an average from 45 to 50 bushels in the more 

 humid sections. 



In the region lying upon both sides of the Missouri River from cen- 

 tral Missouri west through eastern Kansas and Nebraska, winter wheat 

 constitutes the dominant small-grain crop and occupies the same place 

 in the crop rotation that is occupied by the oats farther east. In Iowa 

 the average yield of wheat upon the Marshall silt loam is about 16 

 bushels per acre. In central Missouri it is 12 to 15 bushels per acre, 

 while in eastern Kansas and Nebraska wheat will average from 10 

 to 15 bushels per acre. Farther west in these latter States the wheat 

 yield sensibly declines, until an average production of 8 to 12 bushels 

 is considered about the normal yield of winter wheat upon this type. 

 The ordinary varieties of winter wheat in this drier portion of the 

 area are being replaced by the durum wheat, a summer grain, which 

 is better suited to production under dry farming conditions. Its 



