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Soils <br />The soils in the watershed are mainly of the Rocky Ford - Numa- Kornman <br />Association. The soils of the Rocky Ford series are deep, nearly level, well drained, <br />loamy soils. They are on terraces of the Arkansas River and its major tributaries. <br />All of these soils are irrigated with water from the Holbrook Lake Canal, which <br />supplies water to Jackson, Reservoir, and Lewis Laterals. Generally, the surface <br />layer is heavily silted because the muddy water used to irrigate this soil has deposited <br />silt and clay. In many places where water tends to pond at the lower end of a field, <br />the soil is more deeply silted than it is in the other areas. In many of the steeper <br />areas, the surface layer is coarser than it is in nearly level areas. In some of these <br />areas, plowing has mixed part of the lighter colored subsoil with the surface layer. In <br />places land leveling or deep tillage has greatly altered or affected some of the soils. <br />The fertile surface layer of these soils is grayish -brown silty clay loam and is about 18 <br />inches thick. It is hard when dry and friable when moist. The Subsoil, or horizon <br />underlying the silted surface layer, is brown silt loam that is easily penetrated by plant <br />roots, air and water. This silt loam grades to lighter colored silt loam at a depth of 3 <br />inches and is coarse textured. Many of the soils have some salts in them. <br />Crop yields are high, but some of these soils need more careful management than <br />others because they are shallow over limestone or sand and gravel. Most of the soils <br />are moderate to high water holding capacity. The main problems are managing <br />irrigation water, maintaining fertility, and controlling erosion on the steeper slopes. <br />24 <br />