78 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



MECHANICAL ANALYSES OF THREE IMPORTANT SOIL TYPES* 



The Norfolk sand is one of the leading truck soils of 

 the Atlantic coast. A large part of the vegetables for 

 eastern cities are grown on this soil. The Miami silt loam 

 is one of the leading types of soil in the "corn belt" of 

 the Central West. The Wabash clay occurs along many of 

 the river bottoms. It is used for corn, oats, cotton, and 

 hay. Compare the analyses of these three soils and the 

 crops grown. 



76. How Soils Are Named. The soils that contain a 

 large proportion of the finest particles are called clay. 

 At the other extreme we have sands and gravels. Soils 

 that are intermediate in texture are called loams. Those 

 with a large proportion of silt particles, and not too much 

 clay, are called silt-loams. These words are joined to de- 

 scribe intermediate types. There are gravelly loams, 

 sandy loams, fine sandy loams, clay loams, etc. Since 

 many soils as thus named are very different in other 

 respects, the Bureau of Soils prefixes another name to 



'Soil Survey Field Book, 10()fi. Biiroau of Soil8. 



