KAST TEXAS. 37 



The soils of Rusk county and a large part of East Texas are mostly 

 made up of the Norfolk and the Oiangeburg series of soils. These are 

 red sandy loams or red clayey loams of excellent mechanical texture 

 and fertility. When freshly clean d from the forest, owing to the ready 

 decomposition of the organic matter in these soils, crops of all kinds 

 grow with great luxuriance, so long as they contain a goodly portion 

 of the original humus: but. when this has disappeared, the soil becomes 

 very unprodi etivc : it loses Its tilth and ability to hold moisture and 

 becomes easily eroded and gullied by rains. This is almost the prevail- 

 ing condition in all the older field throughout East Texas, where con- 

 tinuous waste by cropping and washing have gone on for years without 

 thought of remedy. In spite of these facts the soils of East Texas are 

 more easily maintained in good tilth and fertility, and quicker restored 

 after loss of it, than any soil that I know of elsewhere. The applica- 

 tion of a thin coating of even badly leached barnyard manure increases 

 the following corn crop far beyond the expectations gotten from experi- 

 ences with other soils. A good crop of cowpea vines plowed under on 

 such impoverished land restores it at once to much higher fertility and 

 better texture; especially will the drouth-resistance of the land be in- 

 creased to a marked degree. The beneficent effects on the land of such 

 green manure are also noticeable for several seasons, and not as in the 

 case of our commercial fertilizers that simply stimulate one crop, leav- 

 ing the land, if any change, somewhat poorer for the next crop. 



Since all varieties of cowpea s grow so luxuriantly, even on soil made 

 up of loose wind-drifted sands in East Texas, farming could be readily 

 so carried on as not only to maintain the fertility, but to increase it 

 far beyond the virgin conditions. This can be simply and cheaply 

 done: First, by terracing all cultivated land liable to washing; second, 

 by instituting a system of rotation of crops, in which cowpeas for green 

 manure recurs often enough to steadily increase the humus, and hence 

 the fertility of the soil. On very poor soil such a crop of green manure 

 may at first have, to be applied every other year; later, as the fertility 

 increases, less frequently. 



There is no equal area in the whole State of Texas adapted to so 

 wide a range of agricultural pursuits, nor so cheaply, as East Texas. 

 provided the farming is carried on within the limits of the moderate 

 sized family farm. Farming on the extensive scale, such as is fre- 

 quently found in the prairie region of the West, is in East Texas a 

 profitless waste of resources and energy. It is intensive farming to 

 which the country is adapted, and of such a mixture as the staple crops 

 of the region fruits, vegetables, dairying and hogs. The ample and 

 very regular crops of acorns from the forests furnish efficient and cheap 

 hog feed. The Angora goats thrive well on the underbrush and is the 

 cheapest means of clearing the land for cultivation after the larger tim- 

 ber has been removed. The ease with which cowpeas, peanuts, sweet 

 potatoes and other root crops grow gives abundance of feed for all sorts 

 of domesticated animals. Bermuda grass, carpet grass and Japan clover 

 furnish summer grazing. To these might be added by introducing Bur 

 clover and Rescue grass for winter grazing. 



To anv one who has observed the various regions of the State is this 

 fact evident, that -East Texas is the part of the State in which an in- 



