48 THE OLIVER PLOW BOOK 



seen by the naked eye. They can always be distin- 

 guished by the use of a magnifying glass. A sandy, 

 gritty feeling is noticeable when rubbing the soil between 

 the thumb and finger. This is a never-failing way of 

 recognizing a sandy soil of any character. The sandy 

 loam, as the name signifies, is a mixture of sand and 

 clay, with the sand in larger quantity than the clay. 

 This makes it a less porous soil than the loamy sand, 

 but more porous than clay. It works up easily, 

 does not form hard, unbreakable clods, and is particularly 

 well adapted to the growth of tuber crops. It does not 

 require so much effort to plow or work up into a seed 

 bed as clay loam, but requires more effort than the 

 loamy sand. 



Loamy sand is a combination of sand and loam in 

 different degrees than sandy loam. Sandy loam con- 

 tains more loam than sand, and loamy sand more sand 

 than loam. The easiest and best way to distinguish be- 

 tween these two types of soil is to make them into balls. 

 The sandy loam will hold its shape, while the loamy sand 

 will not. Loamy sand dries out the quickest of any 

 type of soil. It is the easiest to plow, it never forms 

 clods, is coarse grained, and is easily distinguished by 

 the gritty feeling experienced by rubbing it between the 

 thumb and forefinger. It is a soil that has to be handled 

 with the greatest of care or it will produce nothing. It 

 readily blows on account of the rapidity with which it 

 dries out. 



The grains of sand are much coarser than particles of 

 clay. Obviously, there will be larger air spaces. These 

 air spaces permit moisture to percolate downward rapid- 

 ly. Sand, in a loose condition is thus easily packed by a 

 heavy rain. The water percolating downward naturally 



