50 BULLETIN 141, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
It is more than a mere coincidence that the counties in Michigan 
which report over 1,000 acres of sugar beets all contain large areas 
of the soils of the Clyde series, while all but one of such counties lie 
in or adjacent to the glacial lake basins where the soils of the series 
dominate. The six leading Michigan counties in sugar-beet acreage 
are Bay, Gratiot, Huron, Saginaw, Shiawassee, and Tuscola. Refer- 
ence to the map, figure 1, will show that all of these counties lie in or 
adjacent to the area of the old glacial Lake Saginaw\ These six 
counties contain two-thirds of the total acreage of sugar beets grown 
in the State, and they yield over seven-tenths of the total tonnage 
produced. A field inspection of the location of the beet acreages in 
such counties as Shiawassee, where only a portion of the total area 
lies in the lake basins, only emphasizes the close association of beet 
production with the glacial lake soils which are classed in the Clyde 
series. The greatest area devoted to sugar beets is invariably located 
within the lake basins and upon soils of the Clyde series. 
The case in Ohio is even more marked than in Michigan. All of 
the Ohio counties which report more than 200 acres of beets are so 
located as to be dominated by the soils of the Clyde series. The}' lie 
in or adjacent to the area of the ancient glacial Lake Maumee. The 
soils are chiefly members of the Clyde series, with the Clyde clay, 
clay loam, and loam most extensively developed. In this region ex- 
tensive tile underdrainage has rendered even the more claylike and 
compact soils suitable for beet growing. 
The association of beet-growing areas and the presence of soils 
of the Clyde series is not so obvious in Wisconsin as in the other two 
States. This arises from the' fact that the soils of the Clyde series 
are distributed through a large number of small local lake basins, 
in the main, and the details of beet production are not sufficiently 
precise to permit of close correlation with these small and scattered 
areas. Yet a field examination of the territory shows that the soils 
of the Clyde series in Calumet, Fond du Lac, Kenosha, Milwaukee, 
Racine, and Waukesha Counties are utilized for beet growing, while 
smaller areas in Dane and Rock Counties, together with other closely 
related soils, are the chosen ones for beet growing in these leading 
beet-producing counties of the State. 
Among the soils of the Clyde series the Clyde loam is the best for 
beet production, although w T ell-drained areas of the Clyde clay and 
portions of the Clyde fine sandy loam, which are particularly well 
supplied with organic matter in the surface soil, are also excellent 
beet soils. The yields upon the Clyde fine sandy loam are not usually 
so heavy as upon the Clyde loam, while the stiff surface soil of the 
Clyde clay does not favor the intensive tillage required by the grow- 
ing crop, and it also offers considerable resistance to root penetration. 
