58 BULLETIN 141, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGBICULTURE. 



there are thousands of acres of the fertile soils of the Clyde series, 

 located in New York, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, which 

 are either swampj 7 or in such poorly drained condition as to produce 

 only hay or grass for pasturage. Other extensive areas remain in 

 tracts of forest consisting of water-loving trees and undergrowth. 

 (See PI. IX, fig. 2.) 



In so far as the soils of the Clyde series have been reclaimed for 

 agriculture, this has been accomplished through the extensive sur- 

 face and under drainage of the lands so used. In nearly all of the 

 larger areas occupied by soils of this series, drainage has already 

 been accomplished through community effort in the construction of 

 the larger drainage ditches and through individual effort in the 

 draining of the farm lands into these outlets. This is the present con- 

 dition in the Maumee Basin, in the Saginaw Bay region, and to a less 

 extent in the smaller areas in Wisconsin where the Clyde soils are 

 found. Such a county drainage ditch is shown in Plate X, figure 1. 



There is no single improvement in the condition of the soils of 

 the Clyde series so essential to crop production as drainage. It 

 is not sufficient to provide extensive open ditches for conducting 

 away the surface waters. It is just as essential to provide com- 

 plete tile underdrainage for the more dense members of the series, 

 in order to reduce the amount of moisture held within the soils 

 and deeper subsoils. The tiling of such land is shown in Plate 

 X, figure 2. Only the shallow rooted crops may be successfully 

 grown upon the Clyde loam and the heavier members of the series 

 until tiling is installed. The largest crop yields observed in any of 

 the soil surveys and during the special examination of the different 

 soils of the series were always located upon tile-drained land or upon 

 land which was so situated as to require little artificial drainage to 

 supplement unusually good natural conditions. The widest ranges 

 in crop adaptations were also closely associated with good natural 

 conditions, or with artificial drainage to supplement unusually good 

 natural conditions.. It would scarcely be possible to overestimate 

 the value of drainage for the soils of this group. 



"When drained, the soils of the Clyde series are almost universally 

 of great natural fertility and of well-sustained producing power. 

 They are composed of a heterogeneous mixture of many minerals; 

 they are almost universally well supplied with lime — in the subsoil, 

 at least; and they are unusually well provided with partly decayed 

 organic matter in the surface soil. Through these characteristics 

 they are easily worked and friable to a degree unusual in heavy, 

 close-grained, swampy soils. Both the lime and the organic matter 

 assist in maintaining good tillable condition, if the soils are handled 

 with a normal degree of skill. 



