88 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
rost, but they have a good peach crop about three vears in five. The 
other two years they are caught by the frost. 
The Cuarrman. How large a country is it? 
Mr. Watney. About 200 square miles, that we surveyed. Of 
course, it is not all in peaches. We found that the Orangeburg sandy 
loam, this same soil we found in Texas as a tobacco soil, was the very 
best peach soil that they had. The Orangeburg clay was altogether 
too heavy and was never successful in peaches. It is better for general 
farm crops, but not for peaches. Then we had the Norfolk sandy 
loam, quite similar to the Orangeburg sandy loam, which is the very 
best soil of all for peaches; and those two soils were the soils that they 
had always had success on, but they never realized that their neigh- 
bor, Mr. Jones or Mr. So-and-so, had failed because he had his crops 
invariably on a soil different from that they had succeeded on. 
Mr. Scorr. Is the difference between these soils apparent enough 
so that a nonscientific man, having had his attention called to it, can 
always distinguish them? 
Mr. Wuitney. When their attention is called to the matter they 
say, ‘‘ Why, ves; we knew this before. We knew that these were dif- 
ferent soils;” but they never thought that the soil made the difference 
in the crop; and now with the soil survey they are prepared to under- 
stand:more fully than they did before the reason for their success on 
some soils and their failures on others. Why, when I was a boy ona 
farm in Maryland, reading agricultural papers, I tried, on those sandy 
soils that you know about in eastern Virginia 
Mr. Lamp. Yes. 
Mr. Wurrney. I tried the same kind of fertilizers that the people 
tried in the Hagerstown Valley. I thought I would raise a crop of 
wheat that would be equal to theirs. I got the same brands and did 
exactly as they did, but there was no more chance of raising wheat on 
that than there is of flying. 
Mr. Lams. Not a bit. 
The Cuarrman. I think it has always been a thing of common knowl- 
edge that you always want peach trees on a sandy soil. 
ry. Wurtnry. Yes. : 
The Cuarrman. I know that peach orchards in my country are 
planted upon a little sandy knoll with an eastern or southern exposure, 
not on clay land. 
Mr. Wuirtneyr. Yes, sir; that is correct. 
The Cuarrman. Now you might follow out Mr. Scott’s idea. 
Mr. Waurrney. Yes, sir. here are two lines that have been 
developed in the tobacco investigation; that is, the establishing of 
new industries such as Mr. Scott suggests. We have found evidences 
that the Sumatra tobacco could be grown in Connecticut, and we have 
evidences now that the Cuban tobacco can be grown in Texas. 
The Cuarrman. In the open air? 
Mr. Wurirney. In the open air. 
The Cuarrman. But not Sumatra tobacco in Connecticut, except 
under cover. 
_ Mr. Wurrney. Under cover in Connecticut, but the Cuban tobacco 
in the open air in Texas, Alabama, and South Carolina. These parties 
have been sent down and they have actually cultivated from 3 to 5 acres 
of land. The land has been donated. We have had the teams fur- 
nished us by the owners and the fertilizer furnished just as we want 
