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REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



down from the interior. On the north side of the island the}^ usually 

 consist of sandy loam, or loam which is underlaid at a depth of 12 

 inches by a medium clay. They are level, and when properly drained 

 and cultivated make excellent sugar and pasture lands. On the south 

 side of the island this soil is much deeper and usually more sandy as 

 well as darker in color. For the production of sugar it requires irri- 

 gation during the dry season. 



Bordering the playa plains are the foothills or mountains, the soils 

 of which are dark in color. Farther inland, however, the soil is 

 usually of a heavy red clay. The soils are adapted to coffee, citrus 

 fruits, bananas, tobacco, and various other minor crops, the heavy 

 clays being especially well adapted to coffee. 



The coral sands and the playa plains are so level that improved 

 machinery could be used to very good advantage in their cultivation, 

 but the interior country is so rugged that it prohibits the profitable 

 use of the most of our horse machinery. 



The accompanying table gives the mechanical analysis of samples of 

 soil and subsoil from various parts of the island: 



Mechanwal analysis* of soils and 



from Porto Rico. 



»Made by the Bureau of Soils, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



Sample No. 5918 is representative of the hillside soils of the Rio La 

 Plata which are used for tobacco. The analysis is of material smaller 

 than two millimeters in diameter, and takes no account of 45.9 per 



