THE VOLUSIA LOAM. 5 



tion. Small farm orchards include such standard varieties as the 

 Baldwin, Northern Spy, Rhode Island Greening, Twenty Ounce, 

 Tompkins King, and Duchess of Oldenberg. Few commercial 

 orchards have been planted. 



The Volusia loam is characteristically a small-grain and grass soil, 

 upon which corn is successfully grown where drainage is adequate 

 and the elevation is not too great. It may also be used for the home 

 orchard and for commercial apple growing where the depth of soil 



and subsoil is considerable, the drainage good, and the exposure 

 proper. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN SOIL EFFICIENCY. 



The first requisite for the improvement of the crop-producing ca- 

 pacity of the type is the establishment of complete drainage upon 

 the individual farm. Usually each farm possesses level or slightly 

 depressed tracts which accumulate the surface waters from higher 

 lying lands or which are rendered swampy by seepage waters. Such 

 areas remain sodden and cold until late in the spring. Some crops, 

 such as corn, may not be grown upon them at all and others are 

 seeded so late that yields are reduced and danger from frost is in- 

 curred. In midsummer these same areas become baked and droughty, 

 and crop yields are further reduced. In most cases the laying of a 

 few rods of tile underdrains would completely and permanently 

 remedy this condition. The early settlers laid stone drains, which 

 were fairly effective until they became clogged. An expenditure of 

 $10 per acre for the tiling of such wet areas would be amply repaid 

 by increased and certain crop yields upon many thousand acres of the 

 Volusia loam. The initial expense of tiling has deterred farmers 

 from undertaking this improvement, but it should be considered as 

 one of the most permanent and profitable investments. 



Practically all of the Volusia loam would be improved by applica- 

 tions of lime. Very little calcareous material has entered into the 

 glacial till from which the type has been derived and practically no 

 lime has been added to it in the usual farm practice where it chiefly 

 occurs. In the early days of settlement wood ashes were frequently 

 applied to this soil with excellent results, but in more recent years 

 these have not been available and no other form of lime has been 

 used in their place. Without the liming of the soil alfalfa can not 

 be grown at all upon the Volusia loam and it is becoming progres- 

 sively more difficult to get a good stand of clover. For the effective 

 improvement of the Volusia loam burned stone lime should be 

 slacked and applied once in the regular rotation of crops at the rate 

 of not less than 1 ton per acre. Where available, the ground lime- 

 stone may be used instead at the rate of 3 or 4 tons per acre. In 

 some localities marl may be obtained, and this should be applied at 

 the rate of not less than 2 tons per acre. The lime may be applied 



