APPLIED PHYSIOGRAPHY IN SOUTH CAROLINA 



B}^ L. C. Gli:>x 



• An interesting phj'siographic change is now going on in much 

 of the Piedmont section of South Carolina and other cotton- 

 growing states, the consequences of which are becoming grave 

 to the owners of the soil and are threatening soon to result, un- 

 less checked by a proper observance of ph3'siogra])hic laws, in 

 the destruction of much of the most fertile land of the region — 

 a destruction already wrought in many cases. The change re- 

 ferred to is the exceedingly rapid aggradation b}' the streams as 

 a result of a system of farming that has recently come into vogue 

 in that region. 



This Piedmont section is an old peneplain that has been up- 

 lifted and is now well dissected by the many streams that have 

 cut their way down into the plateau from fifty to a hundred and 

 fifty or more feet below the general level. In some places rapids 

 and falls still occur, but for the most part the streams are at 

 grade and rapid down-cutting has ceased, while lateral swinging 

 has widened the valleys and bordered the banks with large tracts 

 of rich alluvial " bottom land." On these bottoms chiefly the 

 corn of the country has heretofore been raised, while the hill- 

 sides and interstream upland are devoted to the culture of cotton. 



Before the first settlement of the country" the forest-clad slopes 

 furnished waste to the streams verv slowly and they were able 

 to erode for themselves deep channels and keep their valley 

 floors well drained. Although the country' has been settled over 

 a hundred years, the system of farming common before the war 

 did not so materially increase the amount of waste furnished to 

 the streams from the hill slopes as to overload them and endanger 

 the fertility of the bottoms. When a field became too poor for 

 profitable cultivation it was turned out to grow uji in old-field 

 sedge and fresh land -was cleared. In this waj' either much of 

 each stream basin was in original forest or vegetation covered 

 old fields, both of which fed the rainfall to the streams slowl}' 

 and furnished only a moderate amount of waste. 



Since the war the use of commercial fertilizers has become gen- 

 eral in this region. B}^ their application these worn-out old fields 

 have again become capable of producing paying crops and have 



