No. 4.] SOIL VARIATION. 9 



where possible, the ditferent varieties of the same crop, may 

 be grown with most profit. It is for this economic reason that 

 the study of soil adaptation to crops is of so much importance. 



In the Connecticut valley of Massachusetts and Connecti- 

 cut the physical character of the soil not only determines 

 what specific crops shall be grown on the difierent types, but 

 the adaptability of those soil types to such special crops has 

 in turn been the principal basis of land valuation there for 

 the last half century. On my father's farm there were three 

 princij)al types of soil. On the western third a sandy loam 

 gave an excellent quality of wrapper leaf tobacco, and for this 

 reason was bought at a price of $200 an acre, without build- 

 ings. It was not nearly as good for corn or grass as the 

 medium brown loam on the eastern third of the farm, which 

 was then valued at approximately $100 an acre, nor as good 

 for grass as the heavy, dark, silt loam of the middle third, 

 at about $75 an acre. Because of the better yields of corn 

 olitaint'd from the loam, my father, in his early experience 

 there, reasoned that it should produce a good crop of tobacco 

 also. Forced to sell the product for about one-half as much 

 per pound as that grown on the sandy loam, though all 

 methods of fertilization and care were the same, he was not 

 long in drawing the conclusion that he needed no further 

 experience in determining the adaptation to crops of that 

 particular soil. 



When onions became an important money crop in the 

 Connecticut valley he learned that the best tobacco soil on 

 the farm produced the best quality of onions also, but that 

 the brown loam would give a larger yield through a succes- 

 sion of seasons, and that the quality was not enough poorer 

 to be of material consequence. The surrounding locality 

 soon reached the same conclusion, and then the price of that 

 soil type went up. But the price of the dark, silt loam in 

 the middle of the farm has remained nearly stationary, be- 

 cause it produced a thick, gummy leaf of tobacco and a poor 

 grade of onion. For the latter crop this soil does not dry 

 out early enough in the spring. Then, too, its tendency to 

 form small clods which cause sore fingers during hand weed- 

 ing is objectionable, and any rain at harvest time causes this 



