NITRIFICATION AND ACIDITY IN THE MUCK SOILS 
OF NORTH CAROLINA 
By 
L. G. WILLIS, Soil Chemist 
Division of Agronomy 
INTRODUCTION 
In Eastern North Carolina large areas of cut-over swamp-land have 
been drained by means of canals and lateral ditches, and opened up for 
cultivation thus giving promise of greatly increasing the agricultural 
resources of the State. In many cases this promise has been fulfilled 
hut on some tracts, the original yield of corn, which has been the crop 
grown continuously since the soils were cleared, has not been maintained. 
Typical of these latter areas are the soils of the Branch Experiment 
Station Farm at Wenona in Washington county and the soils of a part 
of the Nissen Farms at Terra Ceia in Beaufort county. On these farms 
experimental tests of many soil treatments have resulted in the accumu¬ 
lation of data valuable as an aid to a diagnosis of the cause of the un¬ 
satisfactory yields of corn. 
Both of these farms are located on the level Coastal Plain at an ele¬ 
vation of about fifteen feet above tidewater. The muck deposits are 
from two to three feet in depth with an underlying subsoil of fine sand, 
silt and clay. When first cleared, the muck was apparently well drained 
but in many places there has ensued a gradual settling and compac¬ 
tion with the result that drainage conditions now are very poor. At 
the Branch Farm, the water-table has not been lowered appreciably 
by tile drainage, except in the soil directly above the tiles. At Terra 
Ceia the drainage ditches have failed adequately to drain the unproduc¬ 
tive soil beyond the ditch banks. 
The practice followed in preparing these lands for cultivation has 
been fairly uniform over the entire area. Following the extension 
of the canals, the marketable timber was cut and removed, leaving 
stumps, fallen trees and other wood wastes to be destroyed. This was 
partly accomplished by burning, following which corn was planted 
among the unburned stumps and logs. The early yields of corn were 
greater than fifty bushels to the acre. 
On the more heavily timbered areas the soils were burned over and 
planted several times in this way. The remaining stumps were then 
piled and burned so that corn could be planted and cultivated by ma¬ 
chinery. 
