Ill 
the crops to suffer from drought when the third and sometimes even the second foot 
of soil is too wet for best crop conditions. 
The southern soils are also deficient in organic matter, and, I believe, also in 
available water-soluble salts. These difficulties are in part due to bad management, 
in part to climatic differences, and I have no doubt partly also to difference in origin, 
for in this they stand, geologically speaking, in striking contrast with the newer 
glacial soils of* the North which have been formed so largely by the mechanical 
grinding and mixing of fresh rock materials from widely varied sources rather than 
by chemical disintegration in place. 
The best way to overcome these defects can not be briefly stated except in the 
most general way. It is certain that much may be done by adopting different 
methods of tillage and different tools. I am satisfied that deeper plowing and a more 
complete and deeper turning under of the roughage which grows upon the fields is 
imperative. Much more attention must be given to systematic rotation of crops, and 
the maximum possibility of agriculture will never be reached in the South, as it 
never has been in the North, until live stock is more extensively introduced and 
proper attention given to it as an adjunct to maintaining soil fertility. 
I believe we have demonstrated this year that at Goldsboro, N. C, the yield of 
corn may be easily maintained at 30 bushels per acre instead of at 15 or less, as is 
now the case. Our heavier yields this year there have been due more largely to the 
seed we have used and to the closeness of planting than to the treatment given the 
soil, although this, too, has been important, The corn was planted 42 inches each 
way, with 3 to 4 stalks in a hill, but using the small variety of corn which develops 
much less shade. Side by side with the "Iowa Gold Mine" was planted the local 
variety of corn, both at Goldsboro and at Upper Marlboro, but with the same result — 
that it failed to develop the proper ratio of ears to stalks, and for the simple reason, 
I believe, that too much shade was developed by the heavy stalks of the Southern 
corn, for we have the same results in the North even in the long, warm seasons, no 
matter how strong the soils may be, and we get the same results, too, with the 
smaller varieties of corn if they are planted too close. 
The paper was discussed by R. J. Redding, of Georgia, and B. W. Kilgore, of 
North Carolina, who questioned whether the conditions of the northern and southern 
soils were strictly comparable. 
The second meeting of the Section on Agriculture and Chemistry was held in the 
banquet hall of the Shoreham at 3 o'clock p. m., Wednesday, November 18. 
The section was called to order by its chairman, C. G. Hopkins, of Illinois. 
Extension and Practical Application of Soil Surveys. 
Milton Whitney, of the Bureau of Soils, U. S. Department of Agriculture, spoke 
as follows: v 
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Section : The work of the Bureau of Soils 
and the progress of the soil survey is so well known, scattered as it is through so 
many States, that it is hardly necessary to dwell upon the purpose of the work. It 
will interest you possibly to hear of the progress that has been made up to this time. 
We have surveyed and mapped 122 areas. The work has been carried on in 41 
States and Territories. We have surveyed up to the present time 54,000 square 
miles, or about 34,000,000 acres. The average size of an area is 350 square miles, and 
the average cost per square mile has been $3.10, making about $1,000 the cost for the 
survey of the average-sized area. 
In addition to the actual field work of the survey provided for by Congress in a 
general fund for the maintenance of the Bureau of Soils, from which an allotment 
was made this year of about $80,000, there is also provision for the printing of the 
reports and maps. This is done by Congress in such a way that we have no control 
over the expenditure of the money. The printing of these reports is very expensive, 
and as a matter of fact the printing of the reports and maps costs just about as much 
as the work itself. It has been possible through the more efficient organization of 
the Soil Survey to steadily reduce the cost of the field work. We keep our parties 
in the field now all the year — in the northern States during the summer and in the 
southern States during the winter. We have just issued a statement of our winter 
assignments, taking all our parties from the northern areas into the Gulf States. 
We have twenty parties working thus continuously all through the year, and it is 
needless to say that we have accomplished and are doing a large amount of work. 
The map here shows the location and size of the areas that have been surveyed up 
to this time. 
