The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 69 



The Southern part of the United States is an area widely 

 different from any other area of the same size, either in Europe, 

 Asia or Africa. The position in Europe that corresponds to the 

 Southern part of the United States is mainly mountain land, and 

 only a very little of it is open to utilization by man. The same 

 thing is true of Asia and that part of Africa that corresponds 

 climatically to the Southern Coastal Plain of the United States is 

 largely a desert. Fortunately the desert in America corresponding 

 to the desert in Africa happens to lie in the Gulf of Mexico where 

 it doesn't do any harm. We have a region here that is smooth in 

 topography, has a high rainfall and climate favorable to agriculture. 



The character of the soil in any place at any time is due to two 



fundamental things. This is a rather general statement, but will 



enable us to get to the point. One is the character of the material 



from which the soil came. The other is what has happened to that 



material since it began to exist as a soil. The main thing that in- Climate's 



fluences a soil after it has been formed is the climate. The way '"'..5/'^^ '" 

 ■ r, , ;•■,,, 11 • f X Sou-Making 



climate mfluences that sou is largely through the action of water, 



and where rainfall is very heavy leaching goes on at a rather heavy 



rate. Furthermore, the leaching or soluble effect of the water is 



increased in its effect by high temperature, so that in a region where 



the annual temperature is high and the rainfall heavy, the soil soon 



becomes thoroughly leached. What does that mean ? It means that 



the soluble material in those soils has been carried away and taken 



to"the sea. It means also that a large part of the minerals in that 



soil, those that are easily decomposible, have been decomposed, 



and the salts of which they are composed have been taken out of 



the soil. That is just the condition that exists in a large part of the 



South. W^e have here a region of high rainfall, a region of long 



summers, a region of warm winters, during which the soil does not Tremendous 



freeze : during which, therefore, the rain can act upon the soil all ^^ 



the time, both summer and winter. The result is that Southern Qrowing 



soils are pretty well leached. The result is that a large part of the Seasons 



soluble constituents in that soil is carried out, taken away and 



carried to sea. These soils differ very much from the soils of the 



wide plains of the West, for example, where the soluble material, 



at least in places, is so high on account of the great abundance of 



that material, that plants cannot grow. Wq call it alkali, but it is 



nothing more than an excess of soluble material in the soil. We 



have just opposite of that condition of things in the Southern and 



Southeastern part of the United States. These soils, especially the 



