4 CIRCULAR 9 5, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Grass vegetation usually produces a different soil from that produced 

 by tree vegetation. 



In this area soil mapping has been carried on in Lawrence, New- 

 ton, Barry, and Greene Counties in Missouri. During the progress 

 of this work it is practically certain that the characteristics of all the 

 highly important upland soils were determined. A rather large num- 

 ber of soils was identified, but apple growing is carried on almost 

 entirely on four soils, Gerald silt loam, Lebanon silt loam, Newtonia 

 silt loam, and Baxter gravelly loam. The distribution of each of 

 these soils in the counties already mapped is shown on the soil maps. 

 The counties remaining unmapped will be mapped when the oppor- 

 tunity for doing so is presented. The distribution of these soils in 

 the unmapped counties is not now known, but each farmer, after 

 reading the descriptions which follow, can probably determine if any 

 of these soils occur on his farm. 



The surface soil of Gerald silt loam is dark brown to a depth of 

 about 7 inches and has a smooth silty feel. This layer is underlain 

 to an average depth of about 18 inches by loose flourlike light-gray 

 or very light-brown silt loam beneath which is heavy, tenacious clay, 

 the upper part of which forms a claypan nearly impervious to mois- 

 ture and air movement. (PI. 1, A.) This heavy layer contains gray, 

 dark-gray, and rust-brown spots. In moist but not wet condition it 

 breaks up into small angular particles less than half an inch in diam- 

 eter, the insides of which are red. Below a depth of 24 inches the 

 material becomes slightly more friable, and the mottles become larger 

 and more numerous. Below a depth which may range from 26 to 

 about 30 inches is the reddish-brown, gravelly clay material charac- 

 teristic of this area. The upper part of this is in places cemented by 

 iron compounds into a hardpan. 



The principal variations in the Gerald soils are in the depth to the 

 heavy clay layer, which in places is shallow and plastic. The density 

 and plasticity of the clay layer and the presence or absence of the 

 cemented layer at the top of the gravelly parent material are two 

 characteristics of this soil which are highly important in fruit grow- 

 ing. These soils have developed on smooth nearly level uplands and, 

 when first visited by white man, the areas in which they occur were 

 prairie. The dark color of the surface soil indicates that these 

 prairies had existed for a long time, . probably many thousands of 

 years. 



The Lebanon soils have developed on level or nearly level areas 

 under forest consisting largely of post oak, (pi. 1, B), in association 

 with blackjack oak. The surface soil to a depth of about 7 inches is 

 gray, light-gray, or very light-brown silt loam underlain by yellow, 

 yellowish-brown, or slightly reddish-brown clay, less tenacious and 

 sticky than the heavy clay layer in the Gerald soils. At a depth 

 ranging from 20 to 30 inches this is underlain by a layer of mottled 

 gray and rust-brown mixed clay and gravel compacted into a well- 

 defined hardpan ranging up to nearly a foot in thickness. Beneath 

 this lies the usual gravelly red clay of the area. 



The Lebanon soils vary in color, in depth, and in thickness of the 

 hardpan. The more yellowish soil is, as a rule, shallow, and it has 

 the more highly developed hardpan. Reddish-brown areas are more 

 friable and deeper, and in the forest there is a greater proportion of 



