. Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture. Agriculture; Agriculture. CEREAL EXPEEIMENTS AT THE AKEOlSr FIELD STATION. 3 SOIL. Geologically the district was once part of the bed of a Cretaceous sea. It contains manj' deposits of marine fossils which add to the natural fertility. The roUing character of the surface is partly due to wind action. Movements due to wind are still in progress, but vegetation retards the action. Many depressions formed by wind have no drainage outlet. The result of the combined forces is a sandy soil, often of considerable depth, very deficient in humus. In a f
. Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture. Agriculture; Agriculture. CEREAL EXPEEIMENTS AT THE AKEOlSr FIELD STATION. 3 SOIL. Geologically the district was once part of the bed of a Cretaceous sea. It contains manj' deposits of marine fossils which add to the natural fertility. The roUing character of the surface is partly due to wind action. Movements due to wind are still in progress, but vegetation retards the action. Many depressions formed by wind have no drainage outlet. The result of the combined forces is a sandy soil, often of considerable depth, very deficient in humus. In a few localities the subsoil is very different from the topsoil. Clay may be found only 1 or 2 feet below the sand. The natural vegeta- tion is an indicator to the experienced eye of the character of the soil;^ but no examination of land in this district is complete until a few holes have been dug to a depth of 4 or 5 feet. The very sandy lands should not be broken, on account of soil Fig. 1.—Sod broken with a moldboard plow near the Akron Field Station, showing the topography of the locality. An estimate based on the figures of the Thirteenth Census places the proportion of cultivated land at about 6 per cent of the total area and the proportion in cereals at about per cent of the total area. CLIMATE. The climate of the district is healthful. The air is dry and is usually in motion. Strong winds are very common, but tornadoes are rare. The winters are generally mild and open, but occasionally snow falls early and remains until spring. There is a gradual decrease in precipitation from east to west. About two-thirds of the precipitation falls during the growing season, ' .Sharit/,, H, L. Natural vegetation as an indicator of the capabilities of land for crop production in the Great Plains area, U. 8. iJept, Agr.; Bur. Plant Indus. I3ul. 201, 100 p., Zj fig., 0 pi. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitall
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