SOIL FERTILITY 123 



sirable practice to harvest nuts by hogs on many of the heavier^soils be- 

 cause of the likelihood of damage to the physical structure of the soil. 



Extremely heavy, sticky clays which tend to cake or crust are not 

 well suited to peanut production because of the difficulty of peg pene- 

 tration at fruiting time. 



Under favorable conditions it is difficult at times to secure good 

 stands of peanuts, and in wet, poorly drained soils satisfactory stands are 

 virtually an impossibility. Peanuts have a distinct taproot and, as with 

 other deep-rooted plants, it is essential that they be grown on a well- 

 aereated soil with good drainage. 



Variations in the chemical properties of peanut soils are limited some- 

 what by the exacting demands for proper physical characteristics. Soils 

 of desirable color, texture and drainage usually have a relatively low ex- 

 change capacity ... in most cases between one and five milliequivalents 

 per 100 grams of soil. These soils are generally low in organic matter 

 and reserves of plant nutrients. While peanuts may appear to make fair 

 yields on land too poor for most other crops, it should not be implied that 

 this crop is best adapted to relatively infertile soils. The fact that peanuts 

 are grown on soils of low native fertility merely emphasizes the need for 

 an extremely careful program of fertilization and management in order to 

 maintain a high level of production of peanuts and other crops grown 

 in the rotation. 



PROPERTIES OF SOILS IN VARIOUS PEANUT 

 PRODUCING AREAS 



(1) The United States: The majority of the peanuts produced in the 

 southeastern United States are grown on Coastal Plain soils. Batten 

 (29) considers the Norfolk fine sandy loam as the soil best suited to 

 growing the large-seeded type peanut ; and a large acreage of the peanut 

 crop grown in North Carolina and Virginia is produced on soils of the 

 Norfolk series. The Sassafras, Marlboro, Moyock and Craven are also 

 considered to be good peanut soils, while the poorly drained Bladen and 

 Portsmouth soils are not adapted to growing this crop (29). 



Generally, the soils of the small-seeded Peanut Belt in Georgia, 

 Alabama and Florida are more sandy and have a lower exchange capacity 

 and organic-matter content than the peanut soils of the Virginia-Carolina 

 area. The Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station reports (4) that 

 high yields of peanuts have been obtained on all the major soil areas of 

 that State. However, most of the crop grown for market is produced on 

 the light, sandy. Coastal Plain soils of the southeastern part of the State. 



