10 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



somewhat sticky soil to adhere to the bulbs, aud i-eudei- theui 

 less salable. The tops do not cure down as well in the fall 

 on this heavy, silt loam, and this causes some inferior onions, 

 especially if the season be wet and late. Xo doubt many 

 of you have noted similar instances with this or other crops 

 in your own farm experience without realizing that it might 

 be a case of soil adaptation. 



In the rapid development of tobacco growing in Florida 

 and near-by States during recent years soil selection has 

 been one of the most im^iortant factors ; indeed, within that 

 very considerable district possessing a suitable climate, soil 

 selection has been of chief est importance, and this phase of 

 adaptation has been carried even to the point of breeding to- 

 bacco to suit local soil conditions. Deep sandy soils and light 

 sandy loams yield the thin elastic leaf desired for cigar 

 wrappers, while a similar surface soil, underlain by a dark 

 red clay loam subsoil — the Orangeburg sandy loam — 

 yields a thicker loaf of much heavier body, that is worthless 

 for cigar wrappers but very desirable for cigar fillers. These 

 two types of soil occur side by side, often on the same farm, 

 at the same elevation, and so of course under the same cli- 

 matic conditions. 



Sugar cane in the Gulf States grown on the soil type with 

 the red clay loam subsoil mentioned above yields a syrup 

 that brings a lower price than that from another type asso- 

 ciated with it, — the ^Norfolk sandy loam, — which has a 

 more plastic subsoil of yellow color. With other conditions 

 equal, the latter soil also yields more gallons of syi-up ])er 

 acre than the type with the red sul)s()il. This is undoubtedly 

 due to the greater frcetlom with which the cane-root system 

 can pcmetrate the subsoil, as the red subsoil is stiff enough in 

 some cases to hinder root expansion, — a condition to which 

 the sugar cane ])lant is sensitive. 



Sea-island cotton look its name fri^m being grown on 

 islands along the coast of South Carolina. Its long, beauti- 

 ful staple is now secured in northern Florida and other Gulf 

 States when grown on deep, fine-textured, 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 



