SOIL SURVEY OF PORTER COUNTY, INDIANA. 33 



The Lucas loam is too inextensive to be of any importance in the 

 agriculture of Porter County. Most of it is cultivated, however, and 

 the remainder is used for pasture or woodlots. 



Corn, oats, wheat, and hay are the chief crops, and some stock is 

 kept. Wheat is less subject to winterkilling than on the heavier 

 lands, and the soil is somewhat better for corn in wet seasons than 

 the Lucas silt loam. 



The greater part of this type is valued at $125 to $175 an acre. 



LUCAS SILT LOAM. 



The Lucas silt loam is a grayish to yellowish, friable silt loam, 

 underlain by light-yellow or yellow, friable silt loam to silty clay 

 loam, slightly mottled with gray. Tliis passes at about 18 inches 

 into light yellowish brown, dense, plastic silty clay. The sub- 

 stratum consists of the same heavy clay, which contains an abundance 

 of lime concretions at depths of 4 to 7 feet. Occasionally light-gray 

 mottlings occur in the subsoil, but these are not typical. 



This soil is derived from the weathering of heavy water-laid clays. 

 It is encountered in the northern part of the county near Chesterton 

 and McCool. 



The topography is typically flat, but as mapped in this county the 

 type includes narrow belts of sloping land, along the Calumet River 

 and Salt Creek. It usually occupies slightly higher elevations than 

 adjacent land, and because of its elevated position and the dissection 

 by small streams, the natural drainage is good. 



The Lucas silt loam is inextensive, but where it is not too broken 

 it is devoted to farming. The rougher areas are forested with oak 

 and hickory. 



On most of this type general farming includes the production of 

 grain, stock raising, and dairying. The ordinary yield of corn is 

 about 35 bushels per acre, of oats about 35 bushels, and of wheat 

 about 20 bushels. This is a good hay soil, producing over 1 J tons of 

 timothy per acre. The type is usually well fertilized with barnyard 

 manure, and clover is included in the rotation for its beneficial effect 

 on the soil. 



The Lucas silt loam occurs in such irregular and smaU areas that 

 its value depends ' largely on special conditions and on the value of 

 adjoining soils. Most of it is valued at more than $125 an acre. 



The principal need of this type is organic matter. 



