No. 4.] SOIL VARIATION. 11 



underlain by heavy clay loam, a common soil occurrence in 

 that region, it does not succeed, and is replaced by the short- 

 staple varieties. 



In southwest ^Minnesota a shallow^ glacial valley some three 

 miles wide divides the upland prairie, which extends for 

 many miles in transverse direction. The irregular valley 

 walls range in height from 15 to 30 feet, or in some cases a 

 little more. The valley soil is a clay loam, richly charged 

 willi humus. It is suited to grass and other forage crops, but 

 wheat runs heavily to straw, none of the grain grading above 

 No. 2, w^hile much of it is No. 3. Wheat from the gray clay 

 loam to the west of the valley, where the growth of straw and 

 the filling of the heads is well balanced, gives a high per- 

 centage of No. 1 grain. Grown on the brown loam east of 

 the valley, the grade is about half No. 1 and half No. 2. 

 Those lands have been farmed only thirty to forty years, 

 hence they have never been dressed to any appreciable extent 

 with yard manure or commercial fertilizers. The superin- 

 tendent of the elevator at the county seat where most of the 

 grain is sold told me that he could tell on which of these three 

 soil types a farmer unknown to him lived by the way his 

 wheat graded. However this may be, the influence of the soil 

 on the quality of the same varieties of grain is effectively 

 shown by the money returns at the elevator. 



The dark-colored valley soil referred to is of the same 

 character as the famous corn soils of Iowa, and were the 

 climatic conditions in Minnesota as suitable for the growth 

 of corn, this type of soil would undoubtedly equal its proto- 

 type in Iowa for the production of that crop. 



In southeast ]\Iichigan the profit from sugar beets grown 

 for the factory follows closely the character of the soil upon 

 which the beets are grown. Beets from light sandy soils have 

 a high sugar content, with a high coefficient of purity, but the 

 tonnage is relatively small. Moist, rich, clay loams yield a 

 heavy tonnage, but the sugar content is low, and the coefficient 

 of purity very unsatisfactory. The farmers' goal is to secure 

 the highest possible tonnage consistent with a high sugar con- 

 tent of satisfactory purity. This combination is best found 



