70 
SOIL SURVEY OF WAUPACA COUNTY. 
with the character of the adjoining upland. Where heavy soils 
border the marsh the underlying material is usually heavy, but 
where the upland is sandy the subsoil of the marsh is usually 
sandy also. There is probably somewhat more mineral matter 
mixed with the shallow peat, than with the deep peat, but none 
of the material could be classed as muck. But very little of the 
shallow peat is under cultivation. It is utilized to some extent 
for hay and pasture, but only a few small areas have been re¬ 
claimed for cultivation. 
Chemical composition and fertility .—In the improvement of 
peat lands in Waupaca County the first step, of course, is drain¬ 
age. With the exception of some of the marshes immediately 
along the Wolf River it is thought that much of the peat could 
be readily drained and successfully cultivated. Along the Wolf 
River the surface of the peat is so low that much of it would 
require diking, or a lowering of the bed of the river, which 
would Be very expensive, and hardly justifiable under present 
conditions. 
The chief difference between peat soils and upland soils con¬ 
sisting largely of earthy matter, is that they have relatively 
small amounts of the mineral elements phosphorus, potassium, 
calcium, and magnesium, and have extremely high amounts of 
nitrogen in the organic matter. The average per cent of phos¬ 
phorus in the peats of this region so far analyzed is 0.135 per 
cent. This means that in an acre of soil to a depth of a foot 
there is approximately only 675 pounds, or in two feet 1,350 
pounds in comparison with upland soils which have approxi¬ 
mately twice these amounts. Moreover, the acid condition of 
these soils renders the phosphorus less available than in non¬ 
acid soil. 
The deficiency of potassium in these soils is greater than that 
of phosphorus. They contain on the average 0.3 per cent of 
this element, while good upland clay loam soils average two per 
cent, or over six times as much expressed in percentage. When 
the greater weight of the upland soils is taken into account it 
will be found that they contain in the upper two feet 120,000 
pounds per acre, while the peat soils contain but 3,000 pounds. 
A large amount of organic matter in these soils gives them an 
extraordinary amount of nitrogen. They average 2.5 per cent 
of this element, while the upland silt loam soils of this region 
contain but about 0.12 per cent and this only in the surface 
eight inches the amount in deeper layers being much less. 
