CHAPTER XIII. 



SOILS AND HOW TO HANDLE THEM 



There is no soil typical of the Cotton Belt. Cot- 

 ton is grown alike on light sandy soils, on loams, on 

 heavy clay soils, and on strong bottom lands, 

 though naturally not with equal success on all of 

 these varieties of soil. 



In a general way we may group the cotton lands 

 into two great divisions the uplands and the 

 bottom lands. The former may be sub-divided 

 into light sandy soils, and red and gray clay soils; 

 while the latter embrace river-bottoms, basins and 

 banks of small streams, the prairies and cane- 

 brakes, and the valleys of the Mississippi and its 

 branches. 



These soils vary greatly in origin, in composition, 

 in productive power. Like other lands, they are 

 subject to change; and respond to good treatment 

 or suffer from inattention and neglect. 



In all parts of the South one sees cotton soils 

 once abounding in fertility, but now so exhausted 

 that they grow crops hardly worth the cost of 

 seed, fertilizers and tillage. On the other hand, 

 other cotton soils which inherited poverty through 

 generations of thriftless ownership, are now noted 

 for their high productive power. 



Every soil helps its owner in proportion to the 



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