6 The Bulletin 



supply the phospliates most economically and to furnish the nitrogen in 

 soil-improving crops or in fertilizers is discussed in the report. Other 

 reports will follow from time to time giving results of field experiments 

 now in progress and outlined in this report, as well as additional 

 analyses of soils, as the work in surveying and mapping the soils of the 

 section progresses. 



WHAT HAS BEEjST DONE. 



In the spring of 1900, a systematic study of the soils of the State was 

 begun by the State Department of Agriculture. The methods used in 

 the investigations are along three distinct lines as follows : 



1. A soil survey of each of the counties of the State is being made as 

 rapidly as possible showing the location, extent and boundaries of each 

 of the different types of soil occurring in the different counties. This 

 division of the work is being carried on in cooperation with the Federal 

 Bureau of Soils. 



2. Samples of the various types of soil found in each county are care- 

 fully taken for chemical and mechanical analyses in order to determine 

 the amounts of the different plant food materials present and the 

 physical make-up of each type of soil. 



3. Experimental farms and fields have been established on the more 

 important soils, where the chief crops of each section are grown in a 

 rational system of rotation under field condition with different ferti- 

 lizer applications. By this system of plat experimentation, it is hoped 

 to determine the best methods of crop rotation and the most profitable 

 fertilization for each type of soil and at the same time gradually build 

 up the productivity of the soil. 



A detailed soil survey of counties partially or wholly in the Piedmont 

 Region of the State has included all of Alamance, Cabarrus, Caswell, 

 Gaston, Granville, Mecklenburg, Johnston, Forsyth, Rowan, Union, Lin- 

 coln, Randolph and Wake, and parts of Catawba, Burke, Caldwell, Alex- 

 ander, Iredell, and Davie. 



This report deals largely with the chemical composition of the more 

 important soils of the Piedmont section of the State and the results 

 secured in fertilizer plat experiments. 



LOCATION AND EXTENT. 



That part of jSTorth Carolina widely known as the Piedmont region, 

 embraces a wide belt running in a northeast and southwest direction 

 across the central part of the State. It includes about 38 per cent of the 

 area of the State, or 11,814,700 acres of land. It lies between the flat 

 and gently rolling Coastal Plain Region on the east, and the high, 

 rugged, but beautiful mountain ridges on the west. The Piedmont 

 Plateau merges into the mountains so gradually in many places, that 

 it is difticult to draw any sharp division between them. However, the 

 division line marking the Piedmont from the mountains passes through 

 Surry, "Wilkes, Caldwell, Burke, McDowell, Rutherford and Polk coun- 

 ties as they form the foothills. The line of separation between the 

 Piedmont and Coastal Plain regions runs through Anson, Richmond, 

 Montgomery, Moore, Lee, Chatham, Wake, Johnston, ISTash, Halifax, 

 and Northampton counties. 



