STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



197 



It cannot be expected that in a soil containing ninety per cent of 

 inert sand, large percentages of plant food should be found; and if 

 the figures in the above table referred to a clay soil, or to a sandy soil 

 of little depth, little could be said for it. But when such sandy 

 material is from six to ten feet and more in depth, and roots can 

 penetrate it as fast as they can grow, the case assumes a different 

 aspect, since in that case the plant can and does utilize as a source of 

 nourishment not (as is the case in close soils), twelve to twenty inches, 

 but from three to eight feet, as is shown by inspection. To obtain 

 the proper comparison with a clay soil, therefore, we should multiply 

 the figures in the table by three or four, which will give respectable 

 percentages of all, and a very high one especially of lime. By way 

 of illustration, the analysis of a soil somewhat similarly circum- 

 stanced in the State of Mississippi, and noted for its high j)roduction 

 of cotton for many years, is placed alongside. The sand hill soil is 

 eminently a calcareous one, and as such its plant food is in a highly 

 available condition. At the same time, the high figures for soda and 

 sulphuric acid show the presence of some alkali, viz.: Glauber's salt, 

 which is, with the lime, perceptible in the well waters of the region. 

 Here also, however, phosphoric acid is relatively the lowest in sup- 

 ply, and will be first needed when fertilizers are called for by the 

 falling off of production. At the same time the increase of the 

 humus or vegetable matter of the soil should be favored in every 

 possible way, since in so pervious a soil with so much lime, the sup- 

 ply will, under tillage, rapidly decrease in so hot a climate. 



One point needs mention in this connection, viz.: the rapid rise of 

 the bottom-water level that has lately occurred from tlie multiplica- 

 tion of irrigation ditches without any corresponding arrangements 

 for drainage. Of course, roots cannot penetrate beyond the water 

 level, and will not ordinarily exercise their functions even very close 

 to it. When, therefore, the water is found in the bottom of fence-post 

 holes, as is now the case in some fields of such soil, the available 

 depth of soil is correspondingly reduced, just as though the bedrock 



