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States when grown on deep, fine-textnred, loamy sands simi- 

 lar to those of the sea islands which it made famous. But 

 on the heavy soils, or even shallow, sandy loam surface soils 

 underlain by heavy clay loam, a common soil occurrence in 

 that region, it does not succeed, and is replaced by the short- 

 staple varieties. 



In southwest Minnesota a shallow glacial valley some three 

 miles wide divides the upland prairie, which extends for 

 many miles in transverse direction. The irregular valley 

 walls range in height from 15 to 30 feet, or in some cases a 

 little more. The valley soil is a clay loam, richly charged 

 with humus. It is suited to grass and other forage crops, but 

 wheat runs heavily to straw, none of the grain grading above 

 Xo. 2, while much of it is Xo. o. Wheat from the gray 

 clay loam to the west of the valley, where the growth of straw 

 and the filling of the heads is well balanced, gives a higher 

 percentage of Xo. 1 grain. Grown on the brown loam east 

 of the valley, the grade is about half Xo. 1 and half Xo. 2. 

 These lands have been farmed only thirty to forty years, 

 hence they have never been dressed to any appreciable extent 

 with yard manure or commercial fertilizers. The superin- 

 tendent of the elevator at the county seat where most of the 

 grain is sold told me that he could tell on which of these three 

 soil types a farmer unknown to him lived by the way his 

 wheat graded. However this may be, the influence of the 

 soil on the quality of the same varieties of grain is effec- 

 tively shown by the money returns at the elevator. 



The dark-colored valley soil referred to is of the same 

 character as the famous corn soils of Iowa, and were the 

 climatic conditions in Minnesota as suitable for the growth 

 of corn, this type of soil would undoubtedly equal its pro- 

 totype in Iowa for the production of that crop. 



In southeast Michigan the profit from sugar beets grown 

 for the factory follows closely the character of the soil upon 

 which the beets are grown. Beets from light sandy soils have 

 a high sugar content, with a high coefiicient of purity, but the 

 tonnage is relatively small. Moist, rich, clay loams yield a 

 heavy tonnage, but the sugar content is low, and the coefficient 

 of purity very unsatisfactory. The farmers' goal is to secure 



