The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1910-08-09
CRUSHED ROCKS BASIS
OF MINNES0TA'S SOIL
Were Ground to Sand and Clay by
Action of Huge Continental Glaciers
of Ice Period.

st. Paul, development agent of the
Northern Pacific is giving lectures
on geology to the students in the
Itasca summer school and to the
University Juniors in the Forest
school now in session at the school
camp. His connection with this
University work affords the doctor
much pleasure; he was connected
with the United States Geological sur
vey; from 1895 to 1908 was pro-
fessor of natural science in the May
vile, North Dakota state normal
school; and from 1908 to 1910, was
professor of geology at the North
Dakota agricultural college, also
director of the geological and agri-
cultural survey of North Dakota
From his mass of information, he
wrote the standard book The Story
of the Prairies" giving a thoroughly
scientific resume of geological condi-
tons in North Dakota. About local
geological conditions, he says:
The soils of northern Minnesota
present great variety of aspects,
but for the most part the soils be-
long to the class known as glacial
soils or soils that have been formed
by the action of the great continent
al ice-sheet. Many billy tracts of
land occur. These are mostly, or at
least many, morainic hills. Morainic
hills are heaps or ridges of rocky
fragments, soil, gravel, sand and
clay deposited at the edge of the
great ice sheet. Between the hills
are often hollows that contain water
Between belts of morainic hills there
are often broad tracts of gently roll
ing prairie.
The story of the formation of the
soils is pretty long story, but it
may be briefly summed up in the
statement that soil is broken rock.
Glacial soil is broken rock that has
been formed by the action of ice in
the form of glaciers.
The different kinds of soil are
in general way the result of
the somewhat complex process of
glaciation or action of the glacial
ice together with the particular
kind or kinds of rocks that were
broken up to form the soil. Morainic
hills are sometimes sand and some
times. clay; sometimes the rolling
prairies between moraines are light
sand as to their soils, and some
times the soils are heavy or clay. If
the rocks that have been broken
up to from the soils are such as
yield clay then the soil will be
heavy; if the rocks break up with
hard grains then the soil is likely
to be sandy.
Northern Minnesota was cut up
with valleys and was drained by
streams, before the period of geolog-
ic history known as the Glacial
Period. The valleys were filled up
and the hills between the streams
were leveled down, by the ice of the
great glacier. The hills that now
dot the landscape were mostly
formed by the deposit of materials
carried by the ice of the glacier
when the ice melted. Much of the
swamp land of northern Minnesota
would be drained if the present
streams were cleaned of rubbish so
that the water could run off.
"The swamp lands which lie
between belts of morainic hills
and in the lower places among
mills of the moraines, are generally
very rich owing to The fact that
vegetable matter has accumulated
during the ages.
"Some of the sandy lands are
so loose in texture that they do
not stand drought we'll, and the: e
lands therefore require special
handling. Nearly all the soils of
Minnesota are rich enough to pro-
duce good crops if they are only
handled with intelligence. In
some places IT is likely that the
land is better adapted to growing
of trees than general farm crops
Where the hard rocks were not
ground up fine enough to form a
compact soil, the lands should be
utilized for such purposes as they
are adapted for"