SOIL IMPROVEMENT 163 



even more marked in the cotton states. In 

 no country or in any age has there been such a 

 system of soil robbing as that practised on the 

 Southern farm. The washed and barren hill- 

 sides are the first things to attract the atten- 

 tion of all travellers both foreign and native. 

 Natural causes are, of course, partly responsible 

 for these conditions. The mild, open winters, 

 accompanied by frequent heavy rainfalls, with 

 the naturally sandy loose soil, make washing 

 easy. The principal causes are, however, 

 shallow breaking and the system of clean cul- 

 ture practised in cotton farming. With little 

 humus in the soil to absorb the water and hold 

 the particles together, erosion is the natural 

 result. Farther north, where the soil is stiffer 

 and the rainfall lighter, and with a more 

 diversified system of cropping, soils do not 

 wash so badly. Here also the surface soils 

 are frozen for several months which makes 

 washing impossible for a large part of the year. 

 In the early days of commercial cotton grow- 

 ing, when fertile lands were abundant and 

 cheap and with slave labor to produce the 

 crop it was considered more profitable to 

 clear new fields when the old ones became 



