SOIL COMPOSITION 



97 



"The land on which the tests were made had been cropped in cotton for 

 many years. A part of it is loam soil and is well drained. A test was also 

 made on stiff buckshot land." 



"The average increase from 300 pounds of high grade cotton seed meal 

 per acre for the three years (1906-8) has been 106 pounds of lint cotton. 

 We have not been able to increase the size of the crop nor its earliness by 

 the use of either phosphorus or potash." 



"The increase from the application of 300 pounds of cotton seed meal to 

 the stiff buckshot land was 36 pounds of lint cotton per acre. This is not 

 sufficient to make the use of the meal profitable on this character of land." 



As an average of 38 analyses of Arkansas soils, Hilgard gives 

 1400 pounds of acid-soluble phosphorus in 2 million of soil, sug- 

 gesting bottom-land soils or some connection with the phosphate 

 deposits of that state. 



SOILS OF THE NORTHERN STATES 



In the northern tier of states, where the soils are of more recent 

 origin and where the climate of winter offers less exposure to weath- 

 ering and leaching, the normal soils are, as a rule, richer in mineral 

 plant food, as is indicated, for example, by comparing the soils of 

 the late Wisconsin glaciation in northern Illinois with similar 

 types in the older middle Illinoisan glaciation. Of course, the up- 

 land timber soils are not comparable in nitrogen content with the 

 black prairie soils. 



The late Doctor Robert C. Kedsie, one of the few great scientists 

 who, with Doctor E. W. Hilgard and Doctor S. W. Johnson, helped 

 to lay firm foundations for the American Agricultural Experiment 

 Stations, reported analyses of 28 Michigan soils grouped in accord- 

 ance with a general survey or classification of the soils of that 

 state (Michigan Bulletin 99) : 



1. The four southern tiers of counties are classed as theMichigan 

 "wheat belt." 



2. The area along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, including 

 especially the light porous soils upon which peaches of the finest 

 quality are extensively produced, is termed the " peach belt." 



3. Several counties in the Traverse Bay region, including much 

 soil of the sandy-loam type, constitute the " potato district." 



