The Dawn uf a New Constructive Era 



159 



damental facts surrounding these cut-over lands so that it would 

 not be very desirable to w^aste any large amount of time or money 

 in undertaking to do a great volume of original w^ork, because a 

 large part of that has been done, either in this section or in other 

 sections comparable with it, which w^ould obviate the necessity of 

 that experimental work. 



We had pointed out to us by a representative of the Bureau of 

 Soils, for example, the fact that the soil survey, although it is by 

 no means completed, has covered almost every type of land which 

 is represented in the cut-over pine belt ; and we know a great deal 

 about those types of land ; and the practical question here to de- 

 termine is whether a given piece of land comes within a given 

 classification of soil, and then apply the facts already learned 

 regarding that type of soil to that particular piece of land. I do 

 not believe, for that reason, in any extensive soil survey, but in 

 the application of the knowledge we already have of that type, 

 or that quality or class of soil, which can be applied by merely 

 determining to what classification any particular locality belongs. 

 We also know what crops are particularly suited to these 

 different soil types, and we have those crops growing in the 

 South — practically all of them that are likely to be very useful tc^ 

 us in the cut-over district for some time to come. Once we know 

 the classification of the soil we can readily find, in the existing 

 publications or through inquiry at the special offices controlling 

 this work, a large part of the information as to what would be 

 best to plant under given conditions. I know very well that there 

 is a longing in the human mind always for that which is new and 

 novel ; and even in the face of the fact that a given crop has not 

 been produced to any considerable extent, if it has succeeded in 

 some remote country or in a small area of a limited section of 

 the United States, many times a person is inclined to go after 

 that rather than to take that which lies right at our doors, al- 

 ready tried and found to be absolutely reliable. It is so common ; 

 we see it so often, that we cease to think of its value, but look 

 at it way in the beyond, like the ultimate end of this great fence. 

 I believe in utilizing that which we have with us and which 

 has already proven to be the correct thing, and let these other 

 things come by a very slow process, and only adopt them on a 

 large scale after they have proven their worth. 



Now, to come down further to the particular application of 

 these things — to the utilization of the cut-over pine lands — T 



Extensive 

 Soil Survey 

 Unnecessary 



