8 SOILS OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 



not more than $5 or $10 an acre for pasturage purposes and for the 

 small amount of firewood or timber which might be furnished from 

 the swamp forests. When thoroughly drained and brought under 

 cultivation, even with the general farm crops, the Clyde loam is 

 valued at prices ranging from $35 to $100 an acre or even more. 

 These prices are easily exceeded by such areas of the type as are 

 available for the production of the more intensively tilled farm crops, 

 like sugar beets, cabbages, onions, celery, or straAvberries. Thus a 

 considerable expenditure for the perfection of drainage systems is 

 justified over the greater proportion of the territory occupied by the 

 Clyde loam. 



In the majority of the areas where the Clyde loam is found, rational 

 crop-rotation systems have already been adopted, and in all of the 

 more eastern areas considerable attention is paid to the manuring and 

 fertilizing of the general and special crops produced upon the type. 

 In the North Dakota areas, however, grain growing predominates, 

 and the short growing season in that locality renders the introduction 

 of a hoed crop into the rotation decidedly difficult. It would seem 

 desirable to produce the more hardy varieties of corn in alternation 

 with the grain crops and to seed the land down to timothy and alsike 

 clover, even in the region where the Clyde loam is chiefly valued as a 

 spring-wheat soil. 



The surface soil of the Clyde loam is usually abundantly supplied 

 with organic matter through the processes of its original formation. 

 In the stiffer and more clayey areas, however, it is frequently desir- 

 able to apply the coarser and more strawy portions of the stable ma- 

 nure produced upon the farm to the Clyde loam, largely for the pur- 

 pose of loosening the heavy loam surface soil and promoting internal 

 drainage and aeration. At the same time the physical structure of 

 the soil is decidedly improved and its maintenance in good tilth is 

 made easier. 



LIMITATIONS UPON SPECIAL CROPS. 



Because of its rather fine texture and of its great moisture- 

 holding capacity, due to texture and high organic-matter content, the 

 Clyde loam is not suited to the production of any early truck crops 

 in any of the localities where it occurs. The same characteristics, 

 however, render the soil particularly favorable to the production of 

 sugar beets and later market garden and truck crops, such as cab- 

 bages, onions, celery, and late strawberries. With the exception 

 of sugar beets the crops enumerated are grown only to a limited 

 extent, but wherever transportation facilities and markets are avail- 

 able each one of these crops might well be extended in acreage. 

 Cabbages in particular are well suited to a soil of this class, produc- 

 ing large yields with solid heads, as well suited to storage as 



