380 AGRIC0LTURAL REPOBT. [1850, 8.51, 852 



together with the Live Oak, while a little further inland, on the elevations, we 

 find the Long-leaf Pine, and in the wet, flat depressions or ' : hollows inter- 

 vening between them, there is a growth of Bay, Black G um, Water, Willow, and 

 Live Oaks, some Hickory and Magnolia. In these depressions, the soil, and 

 especially the subsoil, is somewhat heavier than on the ridges, and the land, 

 when drained, does very well for 5 to G years, but then becomes exhausted. 



850. Improvement of the Sand Hommocks. — Lands as sandy as 

 these cannot under any circumstances be expected to be productive 

 for any considerable length of time, without manure of the most 

 comprehensive kind ; for the soil is naturally poor in everything 

 but sand, though what there is in them of nutritive ingredients 

 appears to be in a very available condition. Hence such manures 

 as guano or ammoniated guano are thrown away on them ; they 

 do not require stimulants, but nutritive matters ; and what is very 

 important, they require to be corrected, first of all, with reference 

 to their relations to moisture. Thorough draining of the level 

 lands is the first necessity ; after this is done, it would be best to 

 allow them a season's fallowing, after thorough tillage, inasmuch 

 as they are usually bluish at first (from the presence of protoxide 

 of iron — TT383 1 ). Wherever there is a clayey subsoil of some 

 thickness, the tillage ought to be as deep as practicable ; but care 

 must be taken in this case, that there be some clay subsoil left 

 between the tilled layer and the yellow sands which generally 

 underlie ; for if the plow were to penetrate to these, the land 

 would be rendered incapable of improvement, as all the manure 

 which could be applied would sink beyond the reach of plants in 

 a short time (1510). 



The high market value of the sea-shore lands might render it 

 practicable in not a few cases, to improve the soil by hauling on it 

 clays occurring in the neighborhood. Each one must, however, 

 judge for himself as to the practicability, in his own particular 

 case, of this mode of improvement, which is generally too expensive 

 to be practiced on the large scale. 



851. Origin of the Shell Hommock Soil. — The mode of improve- 

 ment most practicable at the present time is probably that of the 

 joint application of lime and vegetable matter to the soil. This 

 is precisely what has been done by nature, assisted by the Indians, 

 in the case of the "hommocks". 



All of these were at one time, undoubtedly, " sand hommocks ". The action 

 of the lime of the shells at first induced a more vigorous vegetation ; the latter, 

 when dead, was rapidly decomposed by the action of the lime, and the healthy 

 humus thus formed, prevented the return of the nutritive matters of the plants 

 to depths beyond the reach of the roots. Every year's growth thus deposited 

 on the surface an additional supply of nutritive ingredients, which the roots, 

 penetrating to great depths in the loose soil, had brought up from below ; and 

 thus finally we have had a soil formed, which is essentially a mixture of sand 

 and humus, with but very little clay. It contains the accumulated wealth of 

 many years vegetation, to which is added the lime, phosphoric acid, and animal 

 matter of the shells. 



852. If, therefore, we would effect a similar transition of the present " sand 

 hommocks ", we must imitate what nature has done, as nearly as we can 



