356 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



system is characterized by indifference on the part of both the owner 

 and the tenant toward the condition of the land. Census data show 

 that in some counties negro tenants, many of them illiterate, are 

 farming more than 80 percent of the crop lands. 



According to H. H. Bennett, of the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils, 

 much of the sloping land in the piedmont region on which pure stands 

 of second-growth pine are growing is abandoned agricultural land 

 from which the original soil was completely washed away. Mr. 

 Bennett reports that in Spartanburg County, S. C., examination of 

 the soil profile in remnants of the virgin forest of mixed hardwoods and 

 pine showed the original soil to have consisted of about 4 to 8 inches 

 of brownish or yellowish mellow sandy loam and loam. This top 

 layer is gone or largely gone from 297,000 acres. 



The loss of productivity on the eroded agricultural lands is reflected 

 by census data. These show some 6K million acres of farm land in the 

 East Gulf drainages to have been abandoned in the past 20 years. 

 Census data for Georgia show that the area of cultivated lands has 

 decreased by 70 percent in Muscogee County, by 65 percent in Chat- 

 tahoochee County, and by 51 percent in Hancock and Lincoln 

 Counties. A reduction of almost 40 percent is shown for Coosa and 

 Tallapoosa Counties, Ala., and similar reductions for counties in 

 Mississippi. On many of the abandoned lands erosion is continuing. 



In the report on a soil survey of Muscogee County, Ga., made in 

 1922 by the Federal Bureau of Soils in cooperation with the Georgia 

 State College of Agriculture, it is stated that : 



Most of this soil type (Norfolk sand) was formerly cleared and farmed for a time 

 because of its easy cultivation, but yields were small and erosion was so excessive 

 that much of it was abandoned and allowed to grow up in pine and oaks. * * *. 

 (The Norfolk sandy loam is) one of the most intensively farmed soils in the 

 county * * *. The steeper eroded portions are allowed to remain in brush 

 and pine. 



The construction of terraces on the slopes (Cecil soils) for the prevention of 

 erosion and washing is now customary, and if this policy had been adopted when 

 the land was first cleared many of the gullied fields that have since been turned 

 out and allowed to grow up in pine and brush could be in use today 

 Great care must be taken to prevent gullies from starting (in the Greenville clay 

 loam), for they quickly destroy valuable fields if allowed to go unchecked. 

 * *' *. A large part of it (the Susquehanna clay) was originally cleared and 

 considered excellent cotton soil, but erosion quickly made it of little value and it 

 was abandoned. Most of it at present supports a growth of scrub oak and 

 short-leaf pine. 



The report on the soil survey of Stewart County, in western 

 Georgia, made in 1903, states: 



A lower belt of broken country has been formed by the originally smooth upland 

 being dissected by stream erosion. This belt is characterized by deep gullies, 

 steep hills, and ridges with undulating crests. Some of the deeper gullies, locally 

 called "caves", vary in width from a few feet to one fourth mile, and in depth 

 from 50 feet to 100 feet or more. Their sides are precipitous or perpendicular. 

 The roughest topography in this belt is south of Providence Church, where the 

 surface is very broken, being probably the roughest section in the southern part 

 of the State. In this section there is scarcely an area of land suitable for agri- 

 culture the size of an ordinary garden. Steep ridges rise to an elevation of 200 

 feet or more above the deeper stream bottoms. The country is so rough and 

 broken as to lead some of the inhabitants of the county erroneously to believe 

 that the hills are a southern extension of the Appalachian Mountains. 



The majority of the settlers occupied the clay hills, the level section of the 

 county being avoided until a later day because of a belief that the land was of 

 poor quality. Subsequently, the hill country became so badly gullied by erosion 

 that this region was almost entirely abandoned. Many substantial buildings in 



