Ohio Amish/Niagra Falls

Wife and I just got back from a vacation up through the Ohio Amish country and on to Niagara Falls in Canada. Love the Amish country. We stayed in Millersburg, Ohio a couple of days and watched them plowing in the fields. I would consider visiting that area again, but folks say I should go to Pennsylvania next time. Niagara Falls was a beautiful site as well. But it was all a long way from Louisiana.

The tan soil doesn't look all that healthy to me when I consider the deep black color of soil here in Southern Minnesota. Would be interesting to have a discussion with a soil scientist about the qualities of soil based on its color.

Amish are a pain thier invading my whole area were 15 years ago thier was none they don't care they will call you every week to see if a place is forsale until you sell it or just flat out get mean with them! I was at my buddy's house once and we were all eating lunch and the front door was open amish guy came to the door said to my buddy's dad heard the place was for sale his dad said well who told you that the Amish guy said I don't know I forgot my buddy's dad said well that's funny you didn't forget to stop! And the Amish guy got mad and left! Thought it was kinda funny! But all the soil here dries out and turns tan!

Amish guy told me they average about 200 bpa on corn. That"s about what we get here in La. with irrigation.

It does that here too, that would be interesting to learn about, specific to a region and why its so. When wet its a dark brown and still looks very rich. The sublayer is a noticeably lighter coffee with cream color, clay and rock. In areas that vegetation, small trees etc. have taken over, there is a layer of black topsoil, no rocks, all fines and organics. Problem is, if you reclaim an area like that, you will lose that top layer or it gets turned under mixed in. That gets wet, its slick like grease, you can't walk down a hill on it if bare soil, like whats under the canopy, takes a lot to dry it too, like the weather we have had for 2 weeks, warm/hot and no rain, just now is it getting dry under the canopy. Makes you wish it was a foot deep. On this land, those black layers are only a few inches, then the layer of brown, then the coffee color layer of clay/gravel. It took 35 years for the black layer to build up, from what was either crop ground or pasture that vegetation, brush, small and larger trees have taken over. It reminds me a little of black top soils Ive worked with in southern NJ, that was black and sandy, sublayers below stained from it.

We're on the west side of Ohio and going to the amish country, Wayne and Holmes co. is a favorite of many of our friends and us. US 30 is now divided highway most the way making it an easy drive.

we are blessed with clay here in central ohio, some of the river bottoms have the darker soils but 200 bu. per acre is not uncommon even with the clay soil

Soil neutrients, not color, grow crops. Black sand doesn't make better concrete than white sand either.
Loren

Brian easy way to stop the Amish from asking if the farm is for sale, is when they come by and ask is say yes and then put the price at 4 to 5 times what it is worth. They stop coming around then. On the other hand if they say sold and you don't sell, that is when 2 fools met and parted.

Bob