SOILS OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES AND THEIR USE IX. 



THE MIAMI CLAY LOAM. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



The Miami clay loam is chiefly found in the eastern portion of the 

 north-central States. It is most extensively developed in Indiana, 

 Michigan, and Ohio, though small areas are found in Wisconsin and 

 Iowa. The soil type has been mapped to the extent of 2,281,482 

 acres in 18 areas in the five States in which it has been encoun- 

 tered. The soil surveys in question have been so distributed that 

 they practically outline the region within which it may be antici- 

 pated that additional areas of this soil will be found. It is improb- 

 able that any extensive areas of the Miami clay loam will be found 

 east of Cleveland, Ohio, south of Dayton, Ohio, or Indianapolis, Ind., 

 or west of Rockford, 111. The soil surveys already completed, how- 

 ever, indicate that the Miami clay loam constitutes one of the domi- 

 nant soils of central and western Ohio, northeastern Indiana, and 

 southern Michigan. From all of the localities where this type has 

 been encountered in the soil surveys, its area has extended into bor- 

 dering counties, indicating the existence of many millions of acres 

 of the type within the region outlined. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF SOIL AND SUBSOIL. 



The surface soil of the Miami clay loam is a brown, yellow, or 

 gray silty loam. The depth of this surface soil is rarely less than 6 

 inches, except in limited areas on steep slopes where erosion has been 

 active. More frequently the depth is greater than 10 inches, con- 

 stituting an unusually deep surface soil. This material is frequently 

 underlain by a yellow or brown heavy silty loam to a depth of about 

 2 feet, and this in turn is underlain by a brown, yellow, gray, or 

 drab, frequently mottled, silty clay loam or heavy clay. At a depth 

 varying from 2 feet to 5 or 6 feet the typical blue or drab bowlder 

 clay, with the characteristic glacial pebbles and bowlders, is almost 

 universally encountered. Only upon slopes and in other localities 

 where the depth of surface soil and subsoil is unusually shallow will 

 the consolidated underlying rock be encountered. Usually the depth 

 of the glacial till to bedrock is from 40 to 150 feet. The Miami clay 



95211 Cir. 3111 3 



