Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1914-05-09
Sandy Soils OF Western And
Northern rliChigan
d. A. Jeffrey
Michigan Agricultural College
Experiment Station.

At the present time considerable
areas of sandy soil are being offered
for sale in Michigan Many calls for
information concerning the value
and management of such soils are
coming to the college. This circular
is prepared to provide in a concise
way the information asked for.
These soils range from the coarser
Dune sands to the finer Miami fine
sands. The greater part of the soils
offered for sale are properly en-
braced under what is known as
Miami sands.
The Dune sands possess little or
no agricultural value.
The Miami fine sandy soils are
sufficiently valuable for agricultural
purposes to require little attention in
this place.
The Miami sands vary from soils
that possess much intrinsic agricul-
tural value to soils that can never be
made profitably productive under or
binary methods of management.
Intrinsic Value.
The value of Miami sand will de-
pend chiefly upon four things:
/. It's origin. Whether made up
largely of material produced from the
breaking down of granite rocks and
other rocks rich in plant food consti-
tuents, or whether made up of ma
terial chiefly siliceous-pure quartz.
2. From the finenesS, of the ma
terial. The finer the material the
greater is its waterholding capacity
and the greater, also, the amounts of
plant foods which it will give up for
the use of the plant
3. The subsoil. The finer the sub
soil the more valuable are these lands
for cropping purposes. 1t is not an
uncommon thing to find areas of these
Miami sands so coarse in appearance
as to cause the observer to wonder at
the excellent crops which they pro-
duce. The secret is found usually in
an underlying subsoil of clay located
| 18 to 60 inches below the surface, and
having a depth of a few to several
feet This subsoil of clay is of value
in that:
(a) 1t acts as reservoir to hold
| the water in the soil above, and in
itself, which otherwise would disap-
pear downward by gravity, and
OBJ In that when close enough to
| the surface the roots of the growing
crop above find their way into the clay
itself, and thus procure a larger sup
ply of plant food.
a. The distance of the water table
from the surface, regardless of the
kind of underlying subsoil. That is
the distance which we should have tC
! dig or drive to secure a well.
Indications of Cropping Values.
The possible cropping value OF
these lands is indicated by the orig
inal vegetation which they are sup
porting or have supported.
1. Nearly all Of these sands orig
inally covered by hard wood such al
maple, oak, beach, elm, etc, can be
depended upon to produce fair to gooC
crops.
2. Areas which originally sup
ported good growths of white pine
usually prove reasonably productive
and for some crops such as potatoe!
and clover, quite productive.
8. Areas originally covered will
Norway pine are uncertain.
4. Areas originally covered will
Jack pine can rarely be depended
upon for profitable crops, and never
under ordinary methods of soil man
agement.
5. Where the original forest vege
tation has been removed the produc
tiveness of these soils is indicated b!
the density of the growth of grass