122 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS. 



lack of sufficient fertilization it is abandoned to grow np in pine and 

 another area is cleared to be in turn exhausted and abandoned. 



There is a scarcity of good farm labor. The majority of the farm- 

 ers have not the means to cultivate properly one-fifth of the land they 

 own, yet they attempt to cultivate it all, with the result that not more 

 than one-fourth of a full yield is harvested. In some sections of the 

 area, as about Mooresville, successful farmers have taken worn-out 

 farms and in three years made them pay for themselves, besides 

 greatly improving the productiveness of the soil. This proves the 

 possibilities of some of the really fine areas of farm land of the States- 

 ville district, and should be given considerable notice as an example 

 of what improved methods of cultivation will accomplish. 



It is the purpose of the North Carolina department of agriculture 

 to follow up this work closely, and the soil map will be used as a basis 

 for further investigations as well as for the location of another exper- 

 iment test farm. 



The party next proceeded to Virginia, where a soil survey was 

 started in Bedford County. This area includes a portion of Piedmont, 

 Virginia, and the Blue Ridge Mountains. The soil types recognized are 

 residual soils derived from the decomposition of old eruptive meta- 

 morphic rocks. The Cecil clay covers the greater part of the central 

 portion of Bedford County and makes a fine grass and corn country. 

 Considerable attention is paid to the raising of cattle, and the region 

 is a good heavy shipping and manufacturing tobacco district. Small 

 areas of Cecil sandy loam were mapped, which in a few instances have 

 been used for bright tobacco. 



Mountain lands, of which there are several varieties, possess great 

 possibilities for the development of the apple industry. The county 

 is at present recognized as a prominent apple-growing district. There 

 is great room, however, for the further development of the apple and 

 peach industry, and soil types are being recognized and mapped which 

 are in every way identical with the famous pippin, winesap, and other 

 noted apple lands of Albemarle County. 



The Bonsteel party. — In the first part of the fiscal year the soil sur- 

 vey of St. Mary County, Md. , was completed, it having been begun in 

 the latter part of the preceding year. After this, Calvert County was 

 surveyed, the soils being the same in each area, but of different rela- 

 tive extent. St. Mary County covers an area of about 360 square 

 miles of land surface, and Calvert County of about 218 square miles. 

 Both counties lie wholly within the area of the coastal plain, and are 

 of unconsolidated material, originally laid down in nearly horizontal 

 beds under water. The upland portions now range from 90 to 200 feet 

 above tide level, and are very much eroded by cutting down through 

 the successive layers, exposing eight types of soil. These soils range 

 in texture from the stiff clay lands of the Leonardtown loam and Sas- 

 safras loam to the loose incoherent sands of the Windsor sand forma- 

 tion and the gravels of the Susquehanna formation. 



The Sassafras loam is in fairly good condition, and produces fairly 

 good crops of wheat and corn. The Leonardtown loam, which is a 

 very strong clay soil, should be equally well adapted to these crops, 

 and should have nearly the same value as the Hagerstown loam of the 

 Lancaster area. The soils, however, are generally acid and are very 

 imperfectly cultivated by inefficient labor and poor methods. They 

 range in value from $3 for uncleared land to $10 as a maximum price 

 for cultivated areas. 



