30 
SOIL SURVEY OF JACKSON COUNTY 
Potassium .—*These soils are all so well supplied with this 
element that no artificial application probably will be needed 
on general farm crops, when manure is used, unless in some 
places on the Vesper soil where the drainage may be improved, 
it may be found necessary to apply some of this fertilizer at 
first until the supplies in the soil become available through 
cultivation and exposure of the soil to the air. 
Crops —fThe Knox and Lintonia soils are best adapted to 
grains and grass and fairly so to corn, while the Bates soil 
produces the best corn and barley. The Vesper soil produces 
hay well (alsike and timothy) and fair oats, rye, and a little 
corn. Methods to improve the surface and underdrainage must 
be worked out to improve yields on this soil. 
In cultivating the Knox silt loam, it should be kept in mind 
that the soil is low in organic matter, and that much of it is 
subject to erosion. The supply of organic matter may be 
increased by supplementing the'stable manure with green crops, 
especially legumes, plowed under. The second crop of clover 
may well be utilized in this way. Erosion may be held in check 
by putting the steepest slopes in grass. When necessary or 
desirable to cultivate the steeper slopes, the plow should be 
run at right angles to the slope. The drainage channel down 
the hillside is sometimes left as a shallow sod ditch, while the 
remainder of the field is cultivated. 
The steep parts of the type should be kept in grass as much, 
as possible, and dairying and stock raising are good lines of 
farming to follow. 
There are many good orchard sites on the Knox silt loam. 
Bushberries, strawberries, etc., do well, and it would seem that 
such fruits might be profitably grown on a commercial scale 
since much of the type is within easy reach of shipping points, 
shipping points. The growing of apples has been developed in 
these and it is believed that apples could be successfully grown 
on a larger scale in Jackson county than at present. 
*For more information on commercial fertilizers and their uses see 
page 73. 
tFor more data on crop rotation, etc., see page 64. 
