Utilization of the soils in the Gilroy region

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Introduction

Care must be taken to observe the winds

And changing skies, what modes and habits be

The region’s heritage, what gifts each place

Bears or denies. These acres favor corn

In yonder vines grow better; elsewhere spring

Fruit orchards and a wealth of unsown green.

—Virgil.

It was recognized early in agricultural history that individual crops do not grow equally well in all environments—that certain plants require definite climatic, soil, and other conditions for their maximum development.

Also, in regions containing diverse soils and growing diverse crops, it has been observed that under continued agricultural development there is a tendency, due to economic factors, for crops to be planted and to persist in soils where they are profitable and to disappear from soils where they are not. Eventually, the crops of a region will become aligned with the soils on which they are economically best suited.

In the south-central portion of the Santa Clara Valley a relatively long continued development of intensive agriculture has occurred, in which soil variation has been the chief factor in crop-distribution.