44 
SOIL SURVEY OF JACKSON COUNTY 
buckwheat, and potatoes. Where grass marshes and stream 
bottom land adjoin this soil, it is possible to keep young stock 
and a few dairy cows. The soil is subject to drought, and does 
not support a good quality of pasture when dry spells occur 
in the summer season. 
In favorable seasons on new ground corn yields 20 to 
25 bushels, rye 15 bushels, oats 20 bushels. Beans and 
cucumbers are grown by some of the farmers. The raising 
of special cash crops is limited because of the hauling 
distance to the railroad and the sandy roads. Potatoes yield 
100 to 125 bushels. Wild land sells for from five xo ten dollars 
an acre; improved land for from twenty to twenty-five dollars. 
PLAINFIELD SANDY LOAM 
The Plainfield sandy loam is a brown sandy loam sixteen to 
eighteen inches deep, resting on a subsoil which becomes lighter 
in color, and if anything a little lighter in texture with depth, 
and passes usually at about thirty inches into a yellowish sand. 
The lower part of the soil section thus resembles that of the 
Plainfield sand. 
In Squaw Creek Valley this soil is reddish or chocolate- 
colored in places, indicating the presence of a great deal of iron 
due to a formerly poorly drained condition. This soil is not 
an extensive one. It is associated with the Plainfield sand soil, 
and includes several small areas bordering the river bottom or 
tributary streams south of Black River Falls. 
This type has the same origin as the Plainfield types, and also 
supports about the same scrubby growth. 
From an agricultural standpoint, it is somewhat better than 
the sand type, but yields are lower, and special care is needed 
in cultivating and fertilizing this type. 
VESPER SANDY LOAM 
This soil is mapped chiefly south and east of Merrillan, and 
covers a total of about three square miles of area. 
The surface soil is variable, running from a fine sand and 
sandy loam to a sticky, clayey sandy loam. The subsoil at six 
to twenty-four niches is a mottled or bluish clay loam, contain¬ 
ing sandstones or shale fragments of small size. In some cases, 
