6 SOILS OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 



advisable upon the type, and cotton, corn, and oats should consti- 

 tute the principal staple crops. 



IMPROVEMENT IN SOIL EFFICIENCY. 



Erosion is probably the greatest mechanical difficulty which is 

 experienced in the conduct of agricultural operation upon the 

 Orangeburg sandy loam. Only the more moderate slopes to be 

 found within the type should be cleared and occupied for agricul- 

 tural purposes. Any slope in excess of 10 of declivity is too great 

 to permit of the long-continued production of intertilled crops. 

 Many thousands of acres of the type possess slope of this degree, 

 and of even greater declivity, limiting the area which may be used 

 for agriculture. Areas of greater slope should be occupied only for 

 the production of permanent pasture grasses suited to the attendant 

 climate or, in the case of the steepest slopes, for reforestation and 

 the production of wood and lumber. 



In all cases where the slope is at all steep the plow furrows and 

 the rows of the intertilled crop should be carried around the slope of 

 the hill in the form of contour cultivation, and terraces should be 

 left .at frequent intervals to grow up to grass, in order that there 

 may be no long, steep slopes across the tilled field, and that such 

 surface water as does move down the slope may frequently be inter- 

 cepted by the terrace line. In addition to these precautions it is 

 necessary to incorporate additional amounts of organic matter both 

 to absorb the rainfall and to add coherence to the surface soil. In 

 all cases winter cover crops should be employed in the tillage of this 

 type. 



Chief among the cover crops are the legumes, such as crimson 

 clover, which may be grown in all of the more elevated localities 

 where the type occurs; cowpeas, which may be universally grown 

 upon the type; the velvet bean, which has its habitat in southwest 

 Georgia, southeast Alabama, and western Florida ; lespedeza, at 

 present confined largely to Alabama and Mississippi ; and such non- 

 leguminous crops as winter oats, and even winter rye, which may be 

 grown in practically all of the localities where the t}-pe is found. 



Succeeding a crop of cotton, winter oats should be sown upon the 

 land. Succeeding a crop of corn, or better yet, between the rows, 

 some such crop as cowpeas or hairy vetch should be sown. In both 

 instances the matted vegetation of the cover crop will tend to prevent 

 erosion during the heavy rains of winter and early spring, while A 

 valuable forage crop may be produced when the land would otherwise 

 be idle. 



Wherever possible, one of these crops should be sown upon the 

 Orangeburg sandy loam to occupy the surface during the entire 

 period of the winter months. In this way a considerable benefit 



