THE ORANGEBURG FINE SANDY LOAM. 11 



sufficiently friable to prevent baking or clodding, and its internal 

 drainage is adequate, so that tillage operations may be undertaken 

 almost immediately after a season of rain. The presence of the 

 sandy clay subsoil, and even of clay at greater depths, retards the 

 percolation of moisture and holds an adequate supply within the 

 subsoil during the entire period of growth of the cotton plant. The 

 surface soil is sufficiently sandy to be warm and to force the plant 

 to early growth without being so heavily charged with organic mat- 

 ter or so moist as to make growth of " weed " at the expense of 

 fruiting. In consequence the Orangeburg fine sandy loam when 

 properly handled constitutes one of the best cotton soils to be found 

 in the Southern States. 



In spite of the natural advantages afforded by this soil for cotton 

 production, there is such a wide variation in the efficiency with which 

 it is tilled and planted that there is a great range in the yields of 

 cotton secured from the type. In almost all cases new land of this 

 type when first planted to cotton yields in excess of one-half bale 

 per acre and upon the best tilled farms, even after generations 

 of cotton production, yields of one-half to 1 bale per acre are fre- 

 quent. On the other hand, upon farms and plantations where little 

 attention has been paid to the maintenance of organic matter in the 

 surface soil, where plowing is shallow, and where the subsequent till- 

 age of the crop is not properly conducted for the maintenance of an 

 adequate moisture supply in the surface soil the yields sink as low as 

 two-fifths bale per acre for a general average. The soil itself under 

 almost all circumstances can produce in excess of one-half bale per 

 acre. Any yield below this quantity merely marks inadequate man- 

 agement of the land. In the Gulf Coast region of southern Georgia, 

 southern Alabama, and western Florida, cotton yields range from 

 one-half to 1 bale per acre, and the type is esteemed as the best cotton 

 land of the section with the possible exception of small areas of the 

 Greenville fine sandy loam or the Tifton sandy loam. 



In the interior belt of Alabama and Mississippi, where the Orange- 

 burg fine sandy loam is widely developed, there is a considerably 

 greater range in cotton yields, due to the fact that a larger propor- 

 tion of the type is hilly and broken. Many slopes too steep for any 

 cultivation are annually planted to this crop. As a result, the yields 

 frequently sink below one-half bale to the acre and seldom average 

 more than that amount. This is due in part to faulty methods of 

 tillage and in part to an attempt to till areas which should be in 

 pasture or in forest. In the Louisiana-Texas belt a smaller propor- 

 tion of the total area of the Orangeburg fine sandy loam has been 

 brought under cultivation than in the other two regions where it is 

 prevalent. As a result, there are even wider variations in the yields 

 secured, due to the causes already enumerated. 



