4 SOILS OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 



LIMITATIONS IN USE. 



Before the introduction of rice culture upon this soil type very 

 little agricultural use was made of it. In Arkansas the prairie 

 grasses were used for grazing purposes, and the better drained and 

 higher lying portions of the type were beginning to be cultivated 

 to cereal grains and forage crops. These uses of the type, however, 

 are entirely subordinate to its principal utilization as the chief rice- 

 growing soil of the western Gulf States. While small areas are an- 

 nually planted to cotton, corn, cowpeas, and even oats or wheat, 

 the great use of the soil is for the production of the rice crop. 



IMPROVEMENT IN SOIL EFFICIENCY. 



The Crowley silt loam, owing to its flat topography, to its slight 

 elevation above the main drainage channels, and to the impervious 

 nature of both the surface soil and subsoil, is in its natural condition 

 for the most part poorly drained. In consequence, wherever this soil 

 type is to be used for the production of other crops than rice, and 

 even in many of the areas devoted to rice growing, the installation of 

 proper systems of tile underdrainage constitutes one of the most 

 important improvements in its physical condition. In central 

 Arkansas good yields of corn, oats, and cowpeas are now secured 

 upon the higher lying and naturally well-drained portions of the 

 type. These show clearly the necessity for underdrainage of other 

 portions of the type which are to be used for similar agricultural 

 purposes. The cost of establishing a complete system of tile drainage 

 sufficient to relieve the soil of excess amounts of moisture and to 

 render it capable of producing cotton, corn, and the other staple 

 crops of the region where it occurs, should not exceed $20 per acre. 



Even in the rice-growing district where the flooding of the soil 

 for rice production is practiced, it has been found that the under- 

 drainage of the soil is sometimes insufficient to secure the best results 

 even with an irrigated crop. There has been some difficulty through 

 the accumulation of soluble salts within the surface soil in the rice 

 fields, and thorough underdrainage is the only permanent remedy for 

 these accumulations of so-called alkali salts. 



The high acreage value of the rice crop has led to the constant 

 occupation of areas of this type for its production. It has been 

 found within recent years that it will be necessary to devise some 

 system of crop rotation which will enable the planter to grow other 

 crops between the years devoted to rice culture. No regular system 

 of crop rotation for the rice land has been worked out, and it would 

 be difficult to suggest such a system in the absence of the artificial 

 underdrainage of the type. Wherever the lands are naturally well 

 drained, or wherever they may be improved by the installation of 



