MISCELLANEOUS MATERIAL 
57 
Outside of pasture land and the cutting of blue joint hay, very 
little agricultural use is made of the soil at present. Farms have 
been started at a number of places, but the almost annual floe 
ing and uncertainty of crop yields has led to their partial or 
complete abandonment in most cases. The soil material is highly 
fertile and in favorable seasons excellent yields of corn, small 
grain, potatoes, and tame hay have been produced. Drainage 
would require expensive dikes or levees to keep-off floods, but if 
its drainage could be accomplished this soil would make excellent 
farm land. 
GENESEE SILTY CLAY LOAM 
This is a dark brown sticky silty clay loam on medium to fine 
sandy loam. The depth of heavy surface soil varies from 8 to 30 
inches or more. The deepest dark brown surface layer occurs on 
the higher portions near the streams. Grayish or mottled brown 
silty clay loam with blue clay subsoil at 18 to 24 inches is found in 
the lower open marshy areas near the main land. As with the 
other Genesee types, this soil type is not entirely uniform and 
includes some soil of lighter texture. A sticky brown or mottled 
loam or sandy loam on a sandy loam subsoil occurs in places, 
especially along the immediate banks of the sloughs. 
The silty clay loam covers about 8 square miles of the bottoms 
from Fountain City south to Marshland. 
The topography is level with slight knolls or slightly elevated 
areas interspersed with lower wet areas. In dry years with low 
water, some of the more elevated portions have sufficient drainage 
for cultivation. The lower marshy portions and all of the type 
in times of high water is too wet to cultivate and drainage by 
diking ditches and probably pumping are necessary to make the 
land available for continued farming. 
The soil is an alluvial deposit laid down in more quiet water 
than that in which the coarser soils to the north were deposited. 
As in the case of the silt loam, the soil is partly timbered with 
large elm, oak, soft maple, basswood, and birch trees. Tall blue 
joint grass grows among the more scattered trees. Much of the 
soil is in a marshy condition and coarse grasses and sweet flags 
cover these portions with scattered clumps of birch and willow 
tree brush. 
