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886 FIELD OPERATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF SOILS, 1920.
and fairly extensive acreages are devoted to these crops. Watermelons
and muskmelons also are successful crops on this soil. Peaches
and small fruits occupy a considerable area. The sorghums are
grown for hay. Cotton yields from one-fourth to one-half bale per
acre or slightly more when the boll weevil is not active, or when the
crop is planted sufficiently early to prevent serious damage. Corn
yields from 15 to 25 bushels, oats from 20 to 45 bushels, and wheat
from 8 to 12 bushels per acre. Sweet potatoes produce from 50 to
125 bushels, and peanuts from 20 to 60 bushels per acre. The yield
.of sorghum hay ranges from 2 to 5 tons per acre. Both wheat and
oats are pastured to some extent during the winter.
All areas of the Kirvin fine sandy loam would be benefited by
applying barnyard manure or incorporating organic matter in some
other form, as by plowing under green crops, such as oats or cowpeas.
The growing of cowpeas or peanuts in rotation or in combination
with cotton or corn would work to the same end. Efforts also should
be made to check erosion, which is causing damage in the more rolling
areas: terraces should be constructed to prevent washing where simpler
means are not sufficient. In areas where the subsoil can be
reached in plowing, the turning up of thin layers of this heavier
material and mixing it with the surface soil would improve the land.
Maintaining a surface mulch in cultivated fields is necessary for the
proper conservation of moisture during the summer months.
Kirvin, fine sandy loam, fiat phase.-The flat phase of the Kirvin
fine sandy loam includes level to nearly level areas in which the drainage
is not quite so good as in the areas of the typical soil. The surface
soil in such imperfectly drained areas varies from a light-brown or
gravish-brown to brown fine sand to fine sandy loam, 8 to 15 inches
deep. The subsoil is a dull-red, reddish-yellow, or mottled red and
fellow. moderately stiff or semifriable clay loam to sandy clay, which
grades into stiff clay loam of reddish-yellow or yellow color. In
some of the more poorly drained areas the lower part of the subsoil
consists of a mottled red, yellow, and gray, or yellow and gray, rather
stiff clay. Ferruginous fragments are present on the surface and in
the soil and subsoil, but they are not so numerous as in typical areas.
In some places there is between the soil and subsoil a gradational layer
of yellowish-red or yellowish friable fine sandy loam to fine sandy
clay. This, where present, is generally from 4 to 10 inches thick.
Neither the soil nor subsoil effervesces with hydrochloric acid. The
phase is slightly less in need of humus than the typical soil, but would
nevertheless be benefited by the addition of organic matter.
The same general crops are grown as on the Kirvin fine sandy
loam, and approximately the same yields are obtained.
Kirvin fine sandy loam, stony phase.-The Kirvin fine sandy loam,
stony phase, includes areas in which there is so. much fragmentary
ferruginous material on the surface or in the soil mass that profitable
cultivation is impracticable. This land has very little agricultural
value except for grazing. Most of it is forested with post
oak and blackjack oak or covered with Bermuda grass.
The phase occurs chiefly as low hillocks throughout the entire
region covered by the East Cross Timbers. Several areas southwest
of Keller and south of Crowley stand out as isolated bodies in the
Grapd Prairie.