United States 



BUREAU OF SOILS CIRCULAR No. 15. 

 MILTON WHITNEY, Chief of Bureau. 



MANURIAL REQUIREMENTS OF THE LEONARDTOWN LOAM SOIL OF 

 ST. MARY COUNTY, MD. 



The Leonardtown loam is the most extensive soil type in St. Mary 

 County, Md., and is locally known as the " white oak " or " kettle 

 bottom " soil of the upland. Excepting the Norfolk loam, it lies at 

 a higher altitude than any of the soils of the county. The surface is 

 usually gently rolling. Extensive forests of white oak and pitch 

 pine are found largely on this type of soil. 



The crops to which it is best adapted are wheat, corn, and grass, 

 although tobacco is frequently grown in rotation with these. Its 

 crop-producing power varies greatly, this variation being due chiefly 

 to the different treatment to which the soil has been subjected in dif- 

 ferent places. When well managed it produces good yields of the 

 crops above mentioned. 



The soil is a light-colored silt loam, containing from 8 to 20 per 

 cent of clay and from 50 to 60 per cent of silt. It is usually free 

 from gravel and contains very little coarse or medium sand, with a 

 considerable percentage of very fine sand. It is rather low in 

 organic content. If worked when too wet, the soil has a tendency to 

 puddle, and upon drying bakes into a hard mass. This tendency 

 can be largely overcome by the application of lime or of organic 

 matter. The subsoil consists of a mass of clay lenses, lumps, and 

 fragments, separated from each other by seams or pockets of sand. 

 This peculiar structure causes it to behave much like a dense clay as 

 regards the circulation of water. 



The geographical position of St. Mary County as regards the great 

 markets of the East and its favorable climate for agricultural opera- 

 tions are natural conditions justifying the best of agricultural prac- 

 tices. The rotation usually followed in St. Mary County is tobacco, 

 corn, wheat, and grass, or sometimes a season of fallowing. 



As the Leonardtown loam is not well adapted to the growing of a 

 quality of tobacco which buyers expect from that county, and as 

 tobacco is the great money crop of the locality, this has led to the 

 abandonment of considerable areas of the type to forest occupation. 



29738 No. 1505 



