36 



FIELD OPEEATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF SOILS^ 1916. 



The Maumee loam is fairly extensive and one of the important 

 glacial-lake soils. It comprises no waste land. 



Fifteen or twenty years ago marsh hay was practically the only 

 crop, but this is now of minor importance. Corn and oats, with some 

 hay and wheat, are the principal crops grown. Most farmers raise a 

 lew hogs and beef cattle. This land is quite productive where 

 properly drained. Yields of 35 to 40 bushels of oats and corn, about 

 20 bushels of wheat, and about 1 } tons of hay per acre are obtained. 

 Fertilizers have never been used to any great extent. 



The selhng price of this land is about the same as that of the Mau- 

 mee silty clay loam. 



The results of mechanical analyses of samples of the soil, subsurface 

 material, subsoil, and lower subsoil of the Maumee loam are given 

 in the following table: 



Mechanical analyses of Maumee loam. 



MAUMEE SILTY CLAY LOAM. 



The Maumee silty clay loam consists of a black silty clay loam 

 grading at 8 to 12 inches into a dark-drab silty clay, shghtly mottled 

 with brown, and this passes at about 20 inches into light-gray or 

 drab, plastic clay, mottled with rusty brown. Considerable variation 

 occurs in the color because of the occurrence of local spots of bog 

 iron ore or spots where a mucky surface soil has burned off. In 

 local areas the surface material may consist of muck to a depth of 

 several inches. 



The Maumee silty clay loam is mapped in the old drainage channels 

 cut in the outwash plain south of the Valparaiso Moraine. None, 

 however, occurs southeast of Kouts, where the Kankakee Basin 

 soils become sandier. Other areas occur in the northern part of the 

 county, especially several miles north of Burdick. A few areas 

 along existing streams are partly alluvial in origin. The surface 

 of the type is flat and level except for a gentle slope toward the 

 stream ways and the presence of very slight ridges and depressions. 



This type originally was marsh land, and covered with water at 

 least a part of the year. Ditches have lowered the water table, and 

 the type is no longer inundated. Much of this soil has a more or less 

 sandy substratum, and dredged ditches are unusually effective. 



