SOIL SURVEY OF WEIGHT COUNTY, IOWA. 19 



The systems of farmino; are quite uniform over the county. Ex- 

 tensive rather than intensive methods are practiced. Crop rotation 

 is practiced to some extent on every farm. On the heavier soils, 

 which lie more or less flat, a rotation of corn and oats with an occa- 

 sional seeding to timothy and clover is the general practice. More 

 timothy and clover are used on the more rolling soil types. On 

 many tenant farms corn and oats have been groAvn alternately, or 

 corn year after year, with no change or inclusion of legumes or green- 

 manure crops. A^Hieat is occasionally worked into the crop rotation 

 on lighter and more sandy soils. 



The adaptation of certain crops to particular soil types is generally 

 recognized, but is not carried into the system of farming except in a 

 general way. The staple farm crops are grown on all types over the 

 county. The black, heavy prairie soils, where well drained, are 

 recognized as the strongest corn land because of their high plant- 

 food and organic-matter content. These soils, together with Peat, 

 Muck, and occasionally the Clarion soils, are used for sugar-beet pro- 

 duction. The Clarion loam also produces excellent corn and forage 

 crops. Wheat is grown principally in the southwestern and eastern 

 parts of the county, on the sandier and more rolling Carrington types. 

 The narrow bottom or Wabash types are almost wholly used for 

 pasture because of frequent overflows. There is not, however, a 

 marked difference in the types of farming followed on the different 

 soils of the county. 



Ordinary farm machinery is used on all soils over the county. 

 The farm equipment usually consists of the latest labor-saving ma- 

 chinery. There were 167 silos in the county in 191ft. with many new 

 ones under construction. Fifteen thousand three hundred and 

 twenty-eight tons of silage was put up. 



New and larger houses have nearly displaced the smaller houses of 

 the earlier settlers. Nearly all the farmhouses are of wood. Power 

 elevators, gasoline engines for pumping, .trucks, and tractors are 

 used over the entire county. 



Plowing is still done mostly by horses, although an annually in- 

 creasing acreage is being broken by tractors. Both the 4 and 5 horse 

 hitches are used in plowing, 5 horses where the heavier soil types are 

 worked. Fall plowing is quite generally practiced when possible, 

 for the wet condition of much of the land will permit only very 

 shallow plowing in the spring, particularly in wet seasons. The 

 usual depth of fall plowing is from 4 to 6 inches. The heavier soil 

 types, if plowed when too wet, bake on drying, the soil particles be- 

 coming cemented together into adobelike clods that seriously in- 

 terfere with the further preparation of the seed bed and with sub- 

 sequent cultivation. Care must also be taken on these types to pre- 

 vent the forming of a hard and impervious plow sole, by changing 



