6 BULLETIN 716, IT. S, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
of the farms studied, but all income from this source has been 
ignored in connection with the study herein presented. 
The population of Palmer Township, by 10-year periods, was as 
follows: In 1860, 618; in 1870, 671; in 1880, 591; in 1890, 511 ; in 
1900. 611; and in 1910, 621. 
SOILS. 
The soils of Palmer Township have been described under the gen- 
eral classification residual shale and sandstone soils. 1 These soils, 
underlain by shales and sandstone, have given rise to two distinctly 
different soil series, the Dekalb and the Upshur. 
The Dekalb is represented in this township by a type known as 
Dekalb silt loam. The soil of the Dekalb silt loam is a ^ravish 
yellow or light yellowish brown mealy silt loam, varying in depth 
from 6 to 12 inches, with an average of about 9 inches. The typical . 
soil has a smooth, velvety feel and is rather mellow and easily tilled, 
although it has a slight tendency to run together. In cultivated 
fields the surface soil when dry is usually a very light gray with a 
pale yellowish tinge, but when moist, as in freshly plowed fields, the 
color is more nearly a light yellowish brown. As a rule, the Dekalb 
silt loam has very little, if any, lime carbonate present, and over a 
large part of the area, particularly in poorly drained places, there is 
undoubtedly a deficiency of lime. On the whole, the Dekalb silt 
loam is not considered a very productive soil without fertilizers. 
One of the principal needs of this type is organic matter, which may 
be supplied by the growing and turning under of clover, rye, or other 
green manuring crops, or by the addition of stable manure, to which 
this soil gives a ready response. The texture of the subsoil is such 
that it is retentive of fertilizers, and a permanent improvement of 
the land may be brought about by proper cultivation and fertilizers. 
The Upshur series is represented by the Upshur clay, which is 
known throughout the section where it occurs as "red clay land." 
The type consists of an Indian-red, purplish-red. or reddish-brown, 
heavy clay loam to clay, underlain by a red, very heavy, plastic clay, 
which extends to a depth of 3 feet or more. In its typical develop- 
ment there is very little difference between the soil and the subsoil, 
but in some areas the reel clay is overlain by a thin layer of material 
which is lighter both in color and in texture. The type is very plastic, 
and sticky when wet, and it cracks badly upon drying, the cracks 
varying in width from one-fourth to three-fourths of an inch, and 
extending in many cases to the depth of a foot. This soil erodes 
1 See Reconnaissance Soil Survey of Ohio, Advance Sheets, Field Operations of the 
Bureau of Soils, 1912, U. S. Department of Agriculture, pages 36-45. from which the 
above soil description and much of the topographical description is abstracted. 
