A PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE 

 MOUNTAIN SOILS. 



By B. W. Kilgore, E. L. Worthen and W. E. Heahn. 



SUMMARY. 



This report covers in a preliminary way what has been done during 

 the past eleven years in a systematic study of the soils of the moun- 

 tain section, with a view to ascertaining what the different mountain 

 soils are, where they are located, their extent, the amount of different 

 plant food constituents which they contain, their fertilizer needs for 

 most profitable crops and for permanent improvement, and the crops 

 to which they are best adapted. 



A clear description is given of each kind or type of soil so that the 

 farmer will know that he is operating on that particular kind of soil 

 or soils. As far as the work has progressed maps are available show- 

 ing the location and extent of the different type soils. 



A rather large number of analyses have been made of the various 

 types of soils in different parts of the Mountain section. These 

 analyses show the total amount of the more important plant food con- 

 stituents in these soils. While there is considerable variation, all 

 the mountain soils have been found to be very high in potash, low in 

 phosphoric acid, and to contain a fair amount of lime. The amount 

 of nitrogen varies with the quantity of vegetable or organic matter 

 in the soil. In most of the mountain soils there is sufficient potash 

 in the surface soil to produce maximum crops for three hundred to 

 four hundred years, while twenty to fifty such crops would entirely 

 exhaust the phosphoric acid. 



Fertilizer experiments conducted on the Buncombe and Tran- 

 sylvania Test Farms and the experimental fields at Bl an tyre and Hen- 

 dersonville show that crops are not benefited by applications of 

 potash, but that phosphoric acid first and nitrogen second are the con- 

 trolling constituents in increasing yields. In the use of fertilizers 

 for the production of profitable crops or for the improvement of the 

 soil, liberal applications of phosphates must be made, and nitrogen 

 must also be supplied either in fertilizers or from soil-improving 

 crops. 



Lime has increased yields on most of the soils, but this may be a 

 temporary benefit and at the expense of the organic matter in the 

 soil, the lime liberating the nitrogen in the organic matter for the 

 use of the crops. 



