24 



Land Planning Report 



agricultural uses. Crops demanding clean intertillage 

 have been planted on very hilly land. 



Few agricultural areas in the United States experi- 

 ence as large an annual rainfall as does this region. 

 No part of it receives less than 40 inches and many 

 sections receive 50 to 60 inches. The rainfall is most 

 abundant dui'ing the summer and autumn when the 

 loosened soil is particularly exposed to erosion. The 

 heavy and sudden tliundershower occurrence of the 

 summer rainfall is peculiarly conducive to soil destruc- 

 tion. Winter temperatures are mild and the ground 

 is usually not frozen. Hence the abundant winter 

 rains are able to continue the processes of erosion 

 without interruption. 



Rectiliaear plowing on rolling and steep liilly land 

 has hastened both sheet wasliing and gullying. Strik- 

 ing examples of this may be seen in several localities 

 in northeastern Mississippi, where the soil was originally 

 a yellow loam varying from 3 to 7 feet in thickness. 

 Under clean cultivation sheet erosion was so severe 

 that large areas were abandoned. Gullies then 

 developed in the idle fields, and at the same time the 

 sandy subsoil layer was washed out. This under- 

 mined the topsoil and caused it to cave in. Soon the 

 hills were stripped bare of their loam and only a sterile 

 sand covering was left. The beds of streams were 

 choked with eroded materials, and the valley soils 

 were covered with coarse sand deposits. In the end, 

 much agricultural land was converted into sandy 

 waste. 



Under continuous cropping in cotton and tobacco, 

 any but the best grade of land soon becomes depleted. 

 Many fields reaching this condition are let lie fallow. 

 When hilly or even moderately rolling land lies fallow 

 without a grass cover, serious erosion soon takes place. 



With so many conditions augmenting soil destruc- 

 tion, it is not surprising that large amounts of eroded 

 land are found in nearly every part of this region. 

 On the Piedmont section of North Carolina, for ex- 

 ample, 704,528 acres, or 20 percent of the total cleared 

 land, are estimated to be in the more serious stages of 

 erosion. Tliis is an area larger than the State of 

 Rhode Island. Prior to the advance of the boll 

 weevil into this region, soils of heavier textures were 

 at little disadvantage in cotton production, except for 

 the tendency to erode more rapidly. Under conditions 

 of boU-weevU infestation, however, finer textured soils 

 experience greater incidence of boll-weevil injury 

 because of the later maturity of cotton grown on them. 

 Erosion of the sandy surface soils, particularly in the 

 Piedmont, often exposes a sandy clay subsoil less 

 desirable for cotton, even if not injured by gullying. 



Farm Organization. — During the early stages of 

 agricultural development the lands of the Southeast 

 were cultivated in a prodigal spirit. A few years of 



tobacco cultivation robbed them of their humus and 

 soluble plant foods, after which they were abandoned 

 for freshly cleared fields. Large plantations soon 

 developed, based first upon indentured white farm 

 labor, and later upon Negro slave labor. Neither of 

 these types knew anything about the wise use of soil, 

 and the owners and overseers knew but little more. 



When the system of plantations run by means of 

 slave labor was ended by the Civil War, there arose 

 gradually a system by wliich the Negroes did the farm 

 work under supervision for a share of the crop. At the 

 same time many poor white farmers, who had lived in 

 the Appalachian Highlands, the Piney Woods, and 

 elsewhere outside the plantation belt, took advantage 

 of the collapse in the price of farm land following the 

 war to secure farms. Many such white farmers settled 

 in the upper part of the Piedmont, and in other un- 

 developed or less developed areas. Large numbers of 

 tenants, too poor to own tools or draft animals, worked 

 for the large landowners on a share basis under the 

 name of croppers. Since the Civil War the proportion 

 of farms operated by tenants has steadily risen, until 

 1930 it was 64 percent or more in the portions of those 

 States lying in this region. 



In some areas the land is so largely operated by ten- 

 ants or croppers that the use of land is controlled by 

 their activity. In effect, these tenants are equivalent 

 to hired farm labor, but, being paid in kind rather than 

 in cash, and operating each a separate tract, their 

 status is also more or less that of farm operators. 

 They are enumerated as such by the Federal Census. 

 The scheme of operating farms by means of share- 

 tenants accompanied by a crop-lien system of merchant 

 credit to tenants, was devised following the Civil War, 

 as a means of enabling the landowners without liquid 

 capital to operate their farms. It has served this pur- 

 pose, but has given rise to practices not conducive to 

 stable land use. Merchant and landlord credit se- 

 cured by a crop requires that tenants use their labor in 

 producing cash crops, preferably nonperishable com- 

 modities rather than subsistence crops or livestock. 

 Tenants, having little stake in the land they operate, 

 and receiving little incentive to practice good land 

 management because of lack of immediate benefit and 

 of uncertain tenure, fail to effect soil maintenance. 



Between poverty and inabihty to plan ahead, neither 

 tenants nor, in many cases, landlords have been able 

 to meet the expense of raising a crop and of supportmg 

 their families until it was marketed and, therefore, a 

 large proportion of the farm operations have, of neces- 

 sity, been conducted on credit. Rates of interest have 

 been high and returns have been uncertain, varying 

 with the year's crop and with the market price. 



Unfavorable factors. — Since credit can be obtamed by 

 tenants only on the security of a cash crop, one-crop 



