8 SOILS OF FENDER COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA. 



let ditch. Open ditches in the great majority of cases should have a 

 slope of from 1 to 2 inches per hundred feet. Much trouble is ex- 

 perienced in those areas having a " quicksand " subsoil, on account of 

 the tendency of the latter to wash out, causing the overlying soil to 

 cave. Experience has shown that the sides of ditches in this character 

 of land should have a decided slope. 



With the establishment of a thorough system of drainage there 

 is but little land in the county that can not be made to produce 

 profitably. There has been too little effort to direct the attention 

 of outsiders toward the wonderful productiveness and comparative 

 cheapness of the lands of Pender County, which are not only adapted 

 to general farming but to the production of special crops, such as 

 strawberries and a great variety of vegetables. More tillers of the 

 soil are needed in order to bring about substantial and widespread 

 development commensurate with the agricultural possibilities of the 

 region. There is an abundance of good, well-drained land and 

 poorly drained land easily reclaimable to agriculture, but there are 

 too few farmers to undertake the task of fully developing them. 

 There is no lack of evidence as to the profitableness of agriculture 

 upon the various grades of land, for good farms can be seen through- 

 out the county. To the man of small means or to one seeking a mild 

 climate or land suited to the production of special crops the county 

 offers very attractive inducements. 



A colony of Italians at St. Helena has, within a period of about 

 three years, established itself upon a very substantial and promising 

 basis, having cleared and drained considerable land and brought the 

 same into a good state of productiveness. There are at present some- 

 thing like 300 individuals in this colony ; and that they are prosper- 

 ing in a new country upon soils with which they in the beginning 

 had limited acquaintance attests the agricultural capabilities of the 

 region. 



SOILS. 



The soils of Pender County have been derived from materials 

 which were washed down from the Piedmont country and deposited 

 in the sea that formerly covered this Coastal Plain region. These 

 sediments, subjected to the action of waves and tides, were reworked 

 and assorted into sand, sandy loam, fine sandy loam, and silt loam. 

 Since the recession of the ocean the} 7 have been further modified 

 by erosional processes, organic life, and chemical changes. Streams 

 have cut their channels farther and farther inland, and in pla<v> 

 along the slopes good drainage conditions, with consequent better 

 aeration, have induced more complete oxidation than elsewhere. 

 giving rise to reddish subsoils. In other localities the fine particles 



[Cir. 20] 



