The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-04-28
eumso SOIL IN IOWA, AGAIN.

GUMsO SOIL IN IOWA, AGAIN.
Our good friend, John w Rowley,
editor Of the Keosauqua Republican,
takes issue in his paper for the cur
rent week with some statements
made in recent article in these col
umng on gumbo soil in this state. He
credits The Gate City with speaking
cut OF the fulness OF It's knowledge
or rather the variety OF its misinfor-
mation-on the subject, whereas the
fact is, as was stated in the article,
the information was obtained from a
brochure issued by the experiment
station of the State college at Ames-
This, however, is only incidental. The
main thing Is TO determine the truth
as To the kind of soil in question. AS
a contribution on the subject Mr..
Rowley's article is of real interest and
great value.
1t was stated in the article In these
columns that gumbo soil Is very diff
fcult TO work when wet and that I'M
drained gumbo is of little value for
crop production. Mr. Rowley takes
IoSuc Will Dull SLdtEAitht5- LIZ 20
plains, for the information Of non
farming readers. that "gumbo" is the
l2per black soiI-the surface soil-of
| the fat prairies, "1ike as is seen along
the old Divide Road that trayersed
Harrisburg, Cedar and Union town
| ships in this Van Buren, county.
I Thig soil, he says, has grown and yet
/ grows as big crops OF corn as are pro-
duced in the world. AS to his means
of knowledge. Mr. Rowley says:
From 1855 until 1880, the writer
4 of this article lived with his parents
on a Van Buren, county fat prairie
| gumbo farm, thirteen Of these years
being on an S0-acre farm half a mile
east of Stockport, in Cedar township.
/ This eighty was the blacklist of gumbo
/ and so fat it almost turned up at the
edges Every foot of this S0-acres, or
4 nearly so the writer broke up with
a homemade, handmade plow, manu-
featured in it's entirety by the pioneer
blacksmith John Lyon, who for many
years ran a blacksmith and wagon
shop q mile and a half south Of Utica,
the man who made the plow being the
grandfather of Charles w. Lyon, re
cent assistant attorney general OF
Iowa This plow was pulled by three
horses and part of this farm was
broken up in 1861 and the remainder
4 in 1863.
THE first crop of corn on this 'un-
drained gumbo' was planted with a
hand-planter or plunger on every
fourth row OF turned sod, and all the
cultivation it received was two OF
three borrowings, And even on this
first planted, lightly cultivated, un
drained gunbo. good crop was rails
ed. and the next year and the year
following, were raised 'whopping
crops of corn that at caring time, with
its dark green waving blades, was as
pretty sight Of growing maze as the
J editor of The Gate City ever Toasted
!, his eyes upon
Mr.. Rowley also takes exception tc
the statement that a factory at Stock
: port manufactures drain tile from
gumbo He admits the existence Of
the factory, but says that tile or bricr
; cannot be manufactured successfully
; from gumbo, meaning by "gumbo' the
: upper or outer soil. He comedies thai
some of the gumbo or upper soil Is
used in the making Of tile, but declares
that by far the larger part of the ma
terial used is the clay or semi-clay
that lies under the gumbo. Where an!
considerable proportion of gumbo /!
g used it causes the tile, when burned
10 crack. Mr. Rowley says further il
this connection.
an some localities In this part q
iowa, where tile and brick are manu-
I featured the gumbo is dug up AM
g carried off, and no part of it used at all
;. because better product can be pro
g duced by using only the clay and SEM
:, clay underlying the gumbo. OF cours
:, on these fiat gumbo soils, when tn
" season is very wet, 1t is hard TO rails
a good crop. Hence thing is of es
s pecial benefit when a wet season
on, and Is also beneficial when not S
wet. But here gumbo demonstrate
v another not generally understood fac
q viz, that the black, sticky gumbo /
= more porous, and answers much NOR
= readily TO tile drainage in wet seaso
u time. than the light-gray fat prairi
'e soil, a soil that is frequently seen {
'e large patches in the same field wit
h the black gumbo SOIL
h The Gate City is glad to give M
Of Rowley's statements the same publ
is ity that the former article receives
h 1t is also glad to acknowledge, in til
4 expressive language of the stree