CALIFORNIA SOILS EXCELLENT 41 



light soil as best for vegetable growing. The extreme variations 

 in soils are popularly known as heavy adobe and light sandy soils. 

 Neither are usually counted suitable for garden purposes without 

 treatment to overcome their defects and yet as the terms are used 

 in some California regions, there are very good gardens on both 

 of them. The explanation is that in such localities one has less 

 sand and one less clay than the other. Both are really loams or 

 mixtures of sand and clay; one a clayey loam, the other a loamy 

 sand. Aside from this misapprehension of terms we have of 

 course clays (locally called "adobe") which are true enough to 

 the type to bring despair to the most patient gardner and we 

 have washes of pure sand on which a shallow-rooting plant could 

 hardly live with a stream of water pouring over beside it. But 

 our shifting sands of the interior plains and our so-called deserts 

 are sandy loams which yield profusely when properly irrigated. 

 For the improvement of defective soils for the farm-garden, sug- 

 gestions will be given later. 



Soils Naturally Excellent. For field growth of vegetables 

 in California the grower is usually content to proceed upon the 

 natural texture and fertility of his soil. The crop is chosen to 

 suit the local soil and climate, consequently we have districts be- 

 coming famous for special vegetable products as demand for 

 them in considerable quantities is demonstrated. In such districts 

 the soils are rather light and yet ample in richness to endure for 

 some time the drain of continuous cropping in the same line. We 

 have areas of such soils considerably in excess of their present 

 profitable use. They constitute one of our undeveloped resources 

 and are a surety of future advancement. 



For the very gratifying amount of accurate knowledge of 

 California soils which is now available a debt of honor is due to 

 Dr. E. W. Hilgard, formerly Professor of Agriculture and Director 

 of the Experiment Stations of the University of California, who 

 has given a lifetime to advanced investigations in soil physics and 

 chemistry. It is from his publications 1 that we shall condense 

 some account of the specific character of those soils which are 

 most nearly related to local production of vegetables, leaving out 



lU Soils : Their Formation, Properties, Composition and Relations to 

 Climate and Plant Growth;" also "Agriculture for Schools of the Pacific 

 Slope," by Hilgard and Osterhout. These works can be furnished by the 

 PACIFIC RURAL PRESS of San Francisco. 



