59 



SOIL AND SUBSOIL FROM JESSE H. BLAIR, LEBANON, BOONE COUNTY, 



INDIANA. 



2551, 2552. The samples were sent January 5, 1884, having been 

 taken on September 12, 1883, from u what is popularly called a prairie 

 region, but what is thought to have once been a lake, in the northern 

 part of Hendricks County ; it was dry and very difficult to get a good 

 sample." The sample of soil was taken "by digging a hole an inch 

 square, then shaving a slice downward, about 6 inches deep.' 7 The 

 sample of subsoil was taken from the " next 6 inches below the surface 

 sample." The soil is u rich, solid, and about 18 inches deep, and in a 

 meadow of timothy grass." The subsoil is u tough clay, about 3 feet 

 deep, then sand or gravel." u Ko timber, a swamp or wet prairie, and 

 lately redeemed." No manure has been used. The following crops 

 were raised: "Corn, 75 bushels per acre; large yield of broom corn, 

 then a large yield of hay." " It produces a heavy crop of grass : wheat 

 does fair; the corn is not as good as clay lauds yield." 



The analyses show that an abundant supply of the necessary plant 

 constituents are present, and that the soil should be very, fertile. The 

 amount of nitrogen in the soil is very large. 



SOILS FROM WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT, OSWEGO, N. .Y. 



2553-2561. Samples taken from three distinct fields on which an acre 

 of sugar-beet was grown in 1883, and were sent December 24, 1883. 

 Samples Nos. 2553-2556, marked "A 1, 2, 3, and 4," were taken from "a 

 square two-thirds acre plot at different points, SE., SW., NE., NW. 

 of the field." Samples Nos. 2557-2559, marked B. 5, 6, and 7," were 

 from " a triangular one-third acre plot," taken at the different angles. 

 The two remaining samples, Nos. 2560 and 2561, marked " C. 8, and 9," 

 were from " a field of sugar beet a mile distant " from the other two fields, 

 " cultivated by another party, on a rectangular plot of half an acre ; the 

 samples being taken at the ends, E. and W., of the rectangle." 



The general character of all the fields was a gentle slope, enough to turn water 

 readily. The samples were cut out with a spade, a couple of weeks after the crop 

 was gathered, each about 6 inches wide and deep ; the soil of field A was 8 to 10 inches 

 deep ; that of field B probably 1 foot ; field C was rather stony, soil 8 to 12 inches deep 

 The subsoil of all the fields was hard-pan, with large stones and bowlders imbedded. 

 A subsoil plow was used in preparing fields A and B. No timber was grown on the 

 fields; the woods adjacent, I believe, were maple. The land had been under cultiva- 

 tion for years. Fields A and B had bet-n heavily manured in the spring of 1862 with 

 barn-yard manure, and an excellent crop of corn and beans gathered that year. A 

 succession of rotating crops had been taken previously from these two fields, but I 

 have not the statistics concerning them. No manure was directly applied previous 

 to beet planting on A and B, but I was informed that on field C barn-yard manure 

 was strewn midway between the beet rows, which were 30 inches apart. In fields 

 A and B, after harrowing and rolling, the seed, sugar-beet seed was sown, part by 

 hand and part with a wheelbarrow drill, in rows 18 and 20 inches apart, on the 4th 

 and 9th of May, 1883. All work after hoeing, thinning, and weeding was entirely by 

 hand. The crop weighed nearly 18 tons. 



