12 SOILS OP THE EASTEKN UNITED STATES. 



The type will be found to produce about 300 pounds of lint cotton 

 per acre, which is easily exceeded by the best farmers and is rarely 

 attained by those using less efficient methods. 



For increasing the efficiency of the Orangeburg fine sandy loam 

 as a cotton producing soil the following improvements must all be 

 adopted in the treatment of this type : 



(1) The restoration and maintenance of organic matter in the 

 surface soil through the plowing under of leguminous green manur- 

 ing crops, the use of cottonseed meal as an organic manure, or the 

 production and application of larger quantities of stable and yard 

 manures upon the cotton lands. 



(2) Of almost equal importance is the gradual increase in the 

 depth of plowing, so that instead of an average depth of 3 inches 

 or less, the surface soil shall be plowed at least an inch deeper each 

 year until the total depth of plowing reaches 6 inches, or more if 

 practicable. The increase in depth of plowing is most essential upon 

 the moderate slopes where some degree of erosion is experienced each 

 year and is less necessary upon the level areas at the foot of slopes 

 where soil eroded from higher-lying positions is accumulated. Upon 

 the steepest slopes cultivation should be attempted only in conjunc- 

 tion with contour farming and the terracing of the land. 



(3) The adoption of a systematic crop rotation is also a funda- 

 mental requisite for increasing the productiveness of this soil for 

 cotton and other crops. At present there is too great a tendency to 

 plant every available acre of the Orangeburg fine sandy loam to cot- 

 ton each year. Cotton should be planted for one year upon a portion 

 of the acreage, to be followed by a winter crop of oats for forage 

 purposes, or of crimson clover for grazing, and later to serve as a 

 green manure. The following season corn may be planted upon the 

 same acreage, and cowpeas should be sown between the rows at the 

 last cultivation. It is then possible to return, for the third season, 

 to the beginning of the rotation and to plant cotton again, although 

 it would be advisable in many instances to devote the third year in 

 the rotation to the production of cowpeas, soy beans, or some other 

 leguminous forage crop, to be used to sustain the work stock of the 

 plantation. Where the necessary precautions of deep plowing, resto- 

 ration of organic matter, liming, and inoculation are practiced, a fair 

 to good stand of alfalfa may be secured upon this type, and in many 

 instances could profitably be introduced into the rotation upon all 

 farms and plantations of sufficient size to furnish an acreage large 

 enough to justify a five or six year rotation. 



(4) It is also essential that intertillage methods should be adopted 

 for the cotton crop which will tend to the maintenance of moisture in 

 the surface soil and the immediate subsoil. The most essential of 

 these methods is the frequent stirring of the surface soil, not with 



