H2Ohio Technician Clint Lease grabbed a shovel to scoop some soil at Proving Ground Farm in support of a special project at Ashland Soil and Water Conservation District.

Proving Ground Farm features a lot of tough soil for agriculture, but Maynard Stonebreaker used conservation practices 40-50 years ago to do his best to overcome the soil conditions.

Many of those features can be observed today, as Maynard donated his family farm to Heidelberg University for preservation and education before that institution donated it to Seneca Conservation District.

As part of the Great Black Swamp here in Northwest Ohio, the Blount Silt Loam that makes up about 90 percent of the soils at our farm and is found almost everywhere in Seneca County is known to be very deep and somewhat poorly drained.

These soils were formed by glacial till in the ice ages and are found in areas of wave-worked plains, till plains and near-shore zones. This soil is much more productive when subsurface (tile) drainage is installed.

Some subsurface drainage was installed in Proving Ground Farm since Seneca Conservation District gained ownership thanks to the Ohio Land Improvement Contractor’s Association.