6 SOILS OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 



the regular rotation of the farm, provided certain elementary pre- 

 cautions are taken in the handling of the soil and in the planting 

 of the crops. In the more southern sections where the rain frequently 

 falls in torrential showers, contour farming and the establishment of 

 terraces upon the moderate slopes should be universally followed. 

 In the more northern regions the contour farming in laying out the 

 rows of intertilled crops will frequently be sufficient to check erosion 

 upon this type. In all cases where it is possible fields upon the Cecil 

 clay should be occupied by a winter cover crop, many of which are 

 available, in order to prevent the erosion of the bare and clean tilled 

 soil. Throughout the area where the type occurs, winter wheat may 

 be grown to advantage and constitutes a valuable money crop. It 

 will also constitute an excellent winter cover crop to prevent erosion. 

 From North Carolina southward winter oats may be used for the 

 same purpose. In all regions the establishment of crop rotations 

 that will occupy the Cecil clay with grass crops during a considerable 

 portion of the rotation is to be recommended. 



IMPROVEMENT IN SOIL EFFICIENCY. 



The limitations of yield which hold with respect to the Cecil clay 

 are practically all limitations of mechanical tillage and the manipu- 

 lation of the soil. The problem of improving soil efficiency is, there- 

 fore, a problem of proper tillage rather than a problem of fertiliza- 

 tion, drainage, or any other method of soil management. 



The Cecil clay probabty presents the greatest contrasts in yield of 

 any soil type to be found in the Piedmont Plateau. In its more 

 northern extension, where it has been used as a general-purpose farm- 

 ing soil through a long period of time, it is one of the most highly 

 esteemed soils of the region. The yields of all grain and grass crops 

 are above the average for the locality. In the more southern sections, 

 where erosion has tended to destroy the surface soil, where light 

 farming teams and light implements are used for all classes of tillage, 

 the Cecil clay is too stiff, tenacious, and plastic to meet with the 

 thorough approval of the farmers or to enable them to secure the best 

 results from their present systems of cropping and of working the 

 soil. In order that a favorable seed bed may be prepared the soil 

 must be deeply and thoroughly plowed at a time when it does not 

 contain an excess of soil moisture and before it has become so dried 

 out and baked at the surface that the plow only turns over a long 

 line of caked and clodded soil. Deep plowing and thorough sub- 

 sequent tillage are fundamental' requisites for obtaining satisfactory 

 crop yields upon the Cecil clay. Wherever these requirements are 

 met, this type rewards the farmers with abundant crop yields. 

 Wherever they are neglected, the yields secured are correspondingly 

 unsatisfactory. 



