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SOIL SURVEY OF JACKSON COUNTY 
BATES SILT LOAM 
Extent and distribution .—This type of soil is all found in 
one locality. It covers four to five square miles of land just 
north and west of the town of Alma Center. The soil is nearly 
level to undulating, occupying part of valley flat and extending 
up adjoining slopes and includes small knolls and elevations. 
There is sufficient fall so that the drainage is generally good, 
although where the land is quite level, the drainage is deficient 
in places. 
Description .—The surface soil of the Bates silt loam to a 
depth of ten to fourteen inches consists of a dark-brown silt 
loam containing a high percentage of organic matter. Its high 
percentage of silt and organic matter gives the soil an extremely 
smooth feel. Litmus paper tests indicate an acid condition over 
most of the type. The subsoil consists of a brown or buff-col- 
ored silt loam, which gradually becomes heavier in texture and 
lighter in color, and at twenty-four to thirty inches consists of 
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a yellowish-brown, compact, heavy silt loam or silty clay loam. 
In spots where the drainage is deficient, the subsoil shows a 
slight mottling of light gray or drab. This heavy subsoil ex¬ 
tends to a considerable depth, and the soil section will probably 
average seven to eight feet in thickness. 
Origin .—The silty material composing this type of soil may 
be of residual origin from a shaly phase of the Potsdam sand¬ 
stone formation, or more probably, loessial material. It differs 
from the Knox silt loam principally in its higher organic mat¬ 
ter content. 
Native vegetation .—The type as a whole is generally spoken 
of as “Oak openings” having been originally forested with scat¬ 
tered clumps of large oak trees, while the intervening spaces 
were in a semi-prairie condition, supporting a more or less 
heavy growth of prairie grass. 
The Bates silt loam is one of the desirable types of soil in 
the county. All the general crops grown in the region do well 
on this type, and the average yields of some of the crops are 
higher than on most of the other soils. The soil is especially 
well adapted to corn, on which the ordinary yield is 50 to 60 
bushels per acre. Barley produces 30 to 35 bushels and oats 
40 to 50 bushels per acre. The quality of the small grains is 
