10 SOILS OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 



sandy areas, especially where the crop has been grown, for many 

 years in succession with an almost complete exhaustion of the organic 

 matter in the surface soils, they are frequently less than two-fifths of 

 a bale. Upon newer land or upon land more rationally cultivated 

 and better fertilized the Orangeburg fine sand produces from one- 

 half to two-thirds of a bale of middling Upland cotton. These yields 

 are exceeded by the best farmers, who have become familiar with the 

 peculiarities of the type and who appreciate the advantages to be 

 derived from the growing of leguminous green manuring crops and 

 the use of considerable amounts of high-grade fertilizer. 



To secure the best results from cotton on the Orangeburg fine sand 

 it is requisite that organic matter should be continuously restored to 

 the surface soil between periods of cropping. For this purpose the 

 leguminous crops, cowpeas, soy beans, velvet beans, the vetches, and 

 crimson clover are by far the best, although winter oats and winter 

 rye may be used where difficulty is experienced in securing a stand 

 of the other crops. The partially grown green manuring crop which 

 has occupied the land during the fall and winter months should be 

 turned under to a depth of 3 or 4 inches in the early spring, and 

 where possible the land should be heavily limed with burned stone 

 lime two weeks before the planting of the succeeding crop. 



Under the climatic conditions prevalent where the type is most ex-, 

 tensively developed, the use of lime is found to be decidedly advan- 

 tageous in promoting the decomposition of the heavy growths of the 

 green manuring crops. When its use is not resorted to, some diffi- 

 culty is frequently encountered through the fact that the green 

 manure is not sufficiently decayed at the time the money crop is 

 planted and its immediate benefit is lost. 



The cotton, and, likewise corn, should be frequently intertilled 

 throughout all of the earlier period of the growing season. This is 

 necessary, not merely for the destruction of weeds and for the aera- 

 tion of the soil, but also in order that a surface dust mulch may be 

 formed which is interposed between the moist underlying soil and the 

 evaporation processes of the air above. Particularly during the lat- 

 ter part of the tillage season should the cultivation be shallow, in 

 order that the feeding roots of the cotton or the corn may not be 

 broken, as would happen with deeper cultivation. These two methods 

 of soil management are particularly requisite for the production of 

 satisfactory crops of cotton or of corn upon the Orangeburg fine sand. 



Corn is less generally grown than cotton upon the type. It is less 

 able to withstand drought and is consequently grown either upon 

 bottom lands or upon other types naturally better suited by texture 

 or by topographic position to retain soil moisture into the later sum- 

 mer months. The yields of corn upon the Orangeburg fine sand are 

 generally low, ranging from 8 or 10 to 12 or 15 bushels per acre, 



