THE SASSAFRAS SILT LOAM. 9 



produce 12 tons or more of tomatoes per acre. In general, average 

 yields, however, run from 6 to 8 tons upon this type of soil. The 

 tomatoes produced upon the Sassafras silt loam are well known for 

 quality and flavor, but constitute a late crop suitable for canning 

 purposes rather than an early crop for market shipment. 



The medium to late summer crop of Irish potatoes is also largely 

 produced upon the Sassafras silt loam, both in southern New Jersey 

 and upon the Maryland-Delaware Peninsula. The preparation of 

 the land does not differ materially from that of the preparation for 

 corn, although spring plowing is possibly more generally practiced 

 for the potato crop. In the fertilization commercial fertilizer is used 

 in larger quantities, applications of 1,000 pounds or more per acre 

 being made by the best growers. A fertilizer high in potash con- 

 tent is usually employed. The yields vary from about 100 bushels 

 per acre for the earlier potatoes to over 200 bushels per acre for the 

 later crop in a favorable season. The Sassafras silt loam is almost 

 an ideal late potato soil for the North Atlantic Coastal Plain, pro- 

 vided the ground is properly prepared. It would, therefore, seem 

 that a rotation such as is used in the more northern potato-growing 

 sections might be adopted to advantage. This would bring potatoes 

 into the place of corn, following the clover sod, with an application 

 of 500 to 1,000 pounds of commercial fertilizer per acre applied in 

 the drill at the time of planting. Under this system yields of Irish 

 potatoes might be increased to an average of 200 to 250 bushels per 

 acre after a few years of careful management. The potato crop 

 might well be followed in the succeeding season by either beans or 

 peas for the canning factories. Either crop could be removed from 

 the ground in time for the sowing of the winter wheat crop in the 

 fall. The land should be limed with the bean or pea crop and com- 

 mercial fertilizer again applied with the wheat crop. The clover 

 should only be allowed to stand one year, the early summer cutting 

 being harvested for hay and the aftergrowth or rowen crop should 

 again be turned under as a basis for the restoration of organic matter 

 to the soil preceding the planting of potatoes. 



A four-year rotation approximating this course has been found 

 particularly successful in some of the northern potato-growing sec- 

 tions and has resulted in the increase of average yields from about 

 150 bushels per acre to 200 and even 300 bushels upon farms where 

 it has been most systematically practiced. The principal points of 

 the rotation are the restoration of organic matter through the plow- 

 ing in of the clover, the production of two leguminous crops in the 

 four-course rotation, the use of organic matter as the principal fer- 

 tilizer preceding the potato crop, and the use of lime with the pro- 

 duction of the beans or peas. Wherever areas of the Sassafras silt 

 loam are located near to transportation facilities so that the potatoes 



