I. REPORT OF GENERAL FARM WORK ON THE BUNCOMBE 



TEST FARM, 1908-1910. 



Bj R. W. COLLETT. 



The Farm, Soils and Conditions. — This farm was purchased in 

 1908, after finding our Transylvania County farm would not meet 

 our needs in much of the work we desired to carry out in the moun- 

 tain section. This farm is on the western slope of the Blue Eidge 

 and about five miles from the crest of the same, and is about 12 miles 

 east of Asheville on the Asheville and Salisbury branch of the South- 

 ern Railway. The farm lies along the Swannanoa River on the 

 south, where it has an elevation of between 2,250 and 2,300 feet 

 and reaches back to the foothills of a spur range of the Black Moun- 

 tains, being gently sloping or rolling with very little steep land on 

 the farm. The range of elevation embraced is less than 200 feet, the 

 land being in fact almost entirely bottom and "so-called bench land. 



This farm when purchased was one of the many run-down farms, 

 not better or worse than the average. Most of it was in pasture, de- 

 pending on native wild grasses and had been pastured so close that 

 the ground was quite bare and gave the immpression that the land 

 was poorer perhaps than it really was. A few places had been man- 

 ured for the past two years and were quite productive, but only a few 

 acres and of them we need not speak. 



The bottom land, about 100 acres, was practically all cleared and 

 in cultivation, producing very poor crops. 



The upland or "bench land" is about three-fourths wooded from 

 which most of the merchantable timber had been cut. The present 

 growth is pine, Spanish oak and scrub oak, indicating a thin, poor 

 soil. 



The bottom land ranges from a black muck soil to a thin sandy 

 or gravelly loam. The black bottom land while apparently rich and 

 from chemical analysis is rich in plant food, is not productive. We 

 have under way extensive experiments to determine if possible means 

 of making this land productive. The work already done indicates 

 that drainage and the addition of quite large quantities of phosphoric 

 acid are required. Strange to say, this land has responded but 

 feebly to lime. 



