SELECTION OP LAND IN THE GULF COAST REGION. 9 



Dynamite has been used to a limited extent, the most satisfactory 

 results being attained on land having a heavy clayey subsoil. A 

 large stump puller will handle any of the pine stumps, but the cost 

 of the machines, and also the difficulty of disposing of the stumps 

 after they are out of the ground, deter many of the smaller land- 

 owners from employing this method. 



Roughly estimated, the cost of clearing cut-over pine land may 

 be placed at about $20 an acre. In one county where many northern 

 people have recently settled, the cost is said to range from $10 to $20, 

 the latter figure in some instances including fencing. Land may be 

 quite satisfactorily tilled, however, where only the fallen wood, 

 small stumps, and the laterals of the larger ones have been removed. 



In most of the well-settled counties stock is not permitted to run 

 at large. Where large tracts of open land remain there is generally 

 no stock law, so all fields must be fenced before a crop can be safely 

 planted. 



DEFICIENCY OF ORGANIC MATTER. 



Practically all the well-drained soils are deficient in organic 

 matter. This is true not only of the ground that has been in culti- 

 vation many years but of virgin land as well. In the latter there is 

 a small store of decaying vegetable matter, but it is very meager 

 compared with that in the northern prairie soils. This is due chiefly 

 to the climatic conditions, and also in some measure to the character 

 of the native vegetation. 



On account of the high average temperature, the humidity, and 

 the absence of a winter season, the decay of organic debris is com- 

 paratively rapid. The process takes place faster in light-colored 

 soils of open structure than in heavy, dark-colored types. Or, more 

 correctly stated, perhaps, the products of decomposition are lost in 

 the former a little faster than in the latter. 



This lack of organic components should not be considered a seri- 

 ous or permanent defect in any type. There is such a great variety 

 of minor crops, as cowpeas, soy beans, velvet beans, vetches, and 

 grasses, besides fall-sown grains, that can be easily and profitably 

 grown that at no season of the year is it necessary for land to be 

 without vegetation of some kind upon it. There is ample oppor- 

 tunity for pasturing off or plowing under a heavy covering of this 

 kind without interfering in the least with the production of a staple 

 crop on the same land. 



By this means the fertility of any type having desirable physical 

 properties may be economically increased and the necessity for com- 

 mercial fertilizers correspondingly reduced. 1 



1 The results of crop rotations and the beneficial effects of green manuring are discussed 

 In many of the publications of the U. S. Department of Agriculture and the State experi- 

 ment stations. 



