Cut-Over Pine Lands in the South. 15 



black dots, each representing 20,000 acres, form a dark shading 

 which follows closely the cut-over pine sections. Only 10 to 20 per 

 cent of the section is in farms ; and 80 to 90 per cent is range land, 

 a large proportion of which has had the timber cut off. With such 

 a small proportion of the land in farms it is evident that the pro- 

 duction of feed must be very limited in proportion to the area of 

 grazing. 



SOILS AND TOPOGRAPHY. 



The regions discussed in this report lie within the great Coastal 

 Plain, which borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. 

 This plain lies to the south of the higldand areas of the Piedmont 

 Plateau and the Appalachian Mountain and Ozark regions. It 

 rises gradually from sea level inland, attaining along the interior 

 border an elevation of from 400 to 600 feet. Its surface is prevail- 

 ingly smooth, but there is a range from the nearly level " flatwoods " 

 along the coast to the rolling and hilly lands bordering the southern 

 extension of the Appalachian Mountain region. The drainage varies 

 from poor near the coast to very thorough or excessive in the more 

 rolling portions and in the areas of deep, loose, sandy soil. 



Sandy soils predominate; but there are important belts of clay 

 land and silt loam, and many traversing streams include over their 

 first bottoms and second bottoms strips of sandy, silty, and clay 

 lands. 



In physical composition (texture) the sandy soils are of two prin- 

 cipal kinds, namely, sandy soils with clay or sandy clay subsoils, 

 and deep, loose sands having no clay within 3 feet or more of the 

 surface. The former largely predominate over the region as a 

 whole ; but there are belts, such as the Sand Hills and the Florida 

 Flatwoods, in which deep sands occur over wide areas practically 

 to the exclusion of soils with clay subsoils. 



Near the coast the soils are light, sandy loams, with sandy sub- 

 soils. In the upland hill regions the soils become quite heavy and 

 are subject to severe erosion if not kept covered with vegetation dur- 

 ing winter. 



The sandy soils along the coast and in the flatwoods are not well 

 adapted to the production of forage or feed crops unless they are 

 heavily fertilized. Drainage in the flatwoods to make them pro- 

 ductive is usually necessary. The moist flatwoods, however, are well 

 adapted to carpet grass and " switch " cane, and the grazing is com- 

 paratively good. 



The heavier soils are better adapted to growing forage and feed 

 crops. They are often deficient in nitrogen and phosphorus and 

 require fertilizing, but under proper management produce good 

 yields of feed crops and are well adapted to growing pastures. The 



