SOILS OP MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT. 51 



material by personal observation, likewise to study in a comparative 

 way, as fully as circumstances would permit, the external appearance, 

 the keeping character, the dessert and the culinary qualities of the 

 fruit itself as affected by soil differences. The reader should keep 

 ever in view the fact, however, that the soil is not the sole factor, but 

 only one of several factors which together determine the adapta- 

 bility of any given site to the different varieties of apples or of other 

 tree fruits. It is perhaps needless to mention the difficulty of distin- 

 guishing the influence of the soil from various associated factors of 

 climate, and it is fully realized that the data presented is not only 

 very incomplete, but that much further study of the subject is needed. 



CLASSIFICATION OF SOILS. 



The classification of soils into groups by some arbitrary standard 

 is not difficult, but it is no easy task for one unfamiliar with the 

 process of such separations to make them fit the unmapped soils of 

 a given farm. The many individual conceptions of a sandy loam 

 may differ materially from the place in any definite classification 

 scheme where it properly belongs. But this in no way lessens the 

 necessity for a uniform plan for the grouping of soils, and in view 

 of present knowledge the following plan has been adopted by the 

 Bureau of Soils as the most logical. 



The sands group * is classified as coarse, medium, fine, and very 

 fine. The name implies that the subsoil as well as the surface soil 

 consists of sand. A sand soil type usually contains as many as three 

 of these grades and sometimes all four, but the predominating grade 

 determines the type name — as a fine sand. 



When enough of the finer particles, clay, silt, or both, are included 

 with the sand to make the soil somewhat coherent and loamy, or, as 

 often expressed, " to give it more body," the type is a sandy loam. 



1 A key to the soil terms used appear in the following table : 

 Soils containing less than 20 per cent siit and clay : 



Coarse sand Over 25 per cent fine gravel and coarse sand and less than 50 per 



cent any other grade. 

 Sand Over 25 per cent fine gravel, coarse and medium sand, and less than 



50 per cent fine sand. 

 Fine sand Over 50 per cent fine sand, or less than 25 per cent fine gravel, 



coarse and medium sand. 



Very fine sand Over 50 per cent very fine sand. 



Soils containing 20 to 50 per cent silt and clay : 



Sandy loam Over 25 per cent fine gravel, coarse and medium sand. 



Pine sandy loam — Over 50 per cent fine sand, or less than 25 per cent fine gravel, 



coarse and medium sand. 



Sandy clay Less than 20 per cent silt. 



Soils containing over 50 per cent silt and clay : 



Loam Less than 20 per cent clay, less than 50 per cent silt. 



Silt loam Less than 20 per cent clay, over 50 per cent silt. 



Clay loam 20 to 30 per cent clay, less than 50 per cent silt. 



Silty clay loam 20 to 30 per cent clay, over 50 per cent silt. 



Clay Over 30 per cent clay. 



