1

National

Cooperative

Soil

Survey Newsletter

Issue 18

February 2002

In This Issue—

Editor’s Note

Issues of this newsletter are

available on the World Wide Web

(www.statlab.iastate.edu/soils/soildiv).

Click on NCSS and then on the desired

issue number of the NCSS Newsletter.

You are invited to submit stories for

future issues of this newsletter to

Stanley Anderson, National Soil Survey

Center, Lincoln, Nebraska. Phone—

402-437-5357; FAX—402-437-5336;

email—

stan.anderson@nssc.nrcs.usda.gov.

Horace Smith

A Few Final Thoughts

By Horace Smith, Director (retired), Soil

Survey Division, NRCS, Washington, D.C.

When I became Director of the Soil Survey Division in

November 1996, I had seven major

initiatives that I wanted to get

accomplished during my tenure. I

elaborated on these initiatives and other

goals in a personal letter to National

Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS)

cooperators and in the first NCSS

Newsletter. I am proud of the

accomplishments we achieved during

my tenure. When I retired on January 3,

2002, all of these major initiatives had

been completed with the exception of

one.

A few things that we did together for

which we all should be proud include:

1. Placed special emphasis on the

field and improved the grade structure

and overall status of the field soil

scientist;

2. Accelerated the implementation of

the Major Land Resource Area

(MLRA) concept for project soil survey

activities, including the establishment

of expanded or “Super” project offices;

3. Reorganized the National Soil

Survey Center (NSSC) and established

a Director and five functional areas;

4. Established an NCSS Advisory

Group to serve as a sounding board for

the Division Director and leadership of

the Soil Survey Program;

5. Conducted townhall meetings or

listening sessions at strategic locations

around the country to get feedback

from users on the future of soil survey,

with special emphasis on products and

services;

6. Maintained a strong international

component within the Soil Survey

Program that supported short- and longterm international assignments of NCSS

soil scientists and hosted numerous

visiting scientists and sabbaticals from

around the world;

7. Emphasized the introduction of

new technology into soil survey at the

field level and established a position on

the Director’s staff to coordinate this

effort;

8. Coordinated a very successful

centennial celebration of the NCSS

during 1999 and initiated an annual soil

survey calendar/planner;

9. Issued key publications and soil

survey standards, such as Soil

Taxonomy, second edition, Soil Biology

Primer, and Field Book for Describing

and Sampling Soils; and

10. Established a Soil Science

Scholars Program.

A Few Final Thoughts ........................ 1

New NASIS Leader ............................ 2

New Director of the Soil Survey

Division .......................................... 2

New National Leader for Soil

Survey Interpretations .................... 3

Cathy Seybold Joins the Soil

Survey Interpretations Staff ........... 3

Soil Biology Program Evaluates

Organic Matter Pools ..................... 4

Computer-Assisted Checks for

Coordination of Prime Farmland

Soils, Capability Classification,

and Productivity Ratings ................ 4

A History Lesson ................................ 4

Soil in a Story by Flannery

O’Connor ....................................... 7

Language Matters ............................... 8
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NCSS Newsletter

As I see it, some key challenges of

the NCSS in the future will include but

will not be limited to:

1. The ability to maintain a

centralized Soil Survey Program with

strong Federal coordination and

leadership;

2. The ability to maintain a Soil

Survey Program that has strong and

active participation by experiment

stations from all regions of the country;

3. The ability of the land grant

institutions and NCSS to attract highachieving students into the soil science

discipline;

4. The ability to find a way to bring

new resources into the NCSS

independent of the standard Federal

allocation process;

5. The ability of soil survey leaders at

the field and national levels to continue

to convince decision-makers within

Federal agencies of the importance of

the Soil Survey Program and how it

supports and complements technical

assistance and other conservation and

environmental programs; and

6. The ability to properly deal with

anthropogenic soils and those soils that

have been severely altered by drainage

and land-leveling practices without

violating scientific principals and the

tenets of Soil Taxonomy.

I want to thank the scientists,

partners, and members of the NCSS at

all levels for the important role they

played in allowing me to have a

successful tenure as Director. 

New NASIS Leader

Rick Bigler has been promoted to Soil Scientist with

responsibilities for NASIS at the

National Soil Survey Center, Lincoln,

Nebraska. He received a B.S. degree in

soils at the University of WisconsinRiver Falls in 1972 and a M.S. in soils

at North Dakota State University in

1981.

Rick began working for the Soil

Conservation Service (SCS) as a soil

scientist student trainee in North

Dakota in 1971. He was a Peace Corps

volunteer in Malaysia for 2 years

following the completion of his B.S.

degree. After returning to the United

States, he worked on three soil surveys

for SCS in North Dakota. In 1987, he

moved to Minnesota to work in the SCS

State Office with responsibilities for

soil interpretation records and as soil

database manager. In 1989, he moved

to the NSSC to work with soil

databases.

Rick is a member of the American

Society of Agronomy, the Soil Science

Society of America, and the Soil and

Water Conservation Society. 

New Director of the Soil

Survey Division

On January 13, 2002, Berman D. Hudson became Director of

the Soil Survey Division, Natural

Resources Conservation Service.

Born in South Charleston, West

Virginia, Berman graduated from South

Charleston High School in 1964. He

received a B.S. degree from West

Virginia University in 1969, an M.S.

degree in Forest Soils from West

Virginia University in 1971, and a

Ph.D. degree in Soil Science (Soil

Genesis and Classification) from North

Carolina State University in 1983.

Berman started his career as a soil

scientist in SCS (now NRCS) in March

1975. From 1975 to 1985, he served in

positions of increasing responsibility in

the soil survey program of North

Carolina, including soil survey party

member, soil survey party leader, and

Assistant State Soil Scientist. After

working as a soil scientist in the World

Soil Geography Unit in Washington,

D.C., from June 1985 to June 1986,

Berman became the State Soil Scientist

in Maryland. He served in that position

until September 1987, when he became

a Supervisory Soil Scientist at the

National Soil Survey Center, in

Lincoln, Nebraska, a position he held

until January 1994. From January 1994

to January 1996, he was detailed on

IPA assignment to the USEPA

Environmental Monitoring and

Assessment Program, U.S. Forest

Service Laboratory, Southern Station,

Research Triangle Park, North

Carolina.

After working in the private sector

as a soil and environmental consultant

from 1996 to 1998, Berman returned

to NRCS, serving as soil scientist/

landscape analyst in the Soil Survey

Division in Washington, D.C., from

March 1998 to August 1999; as the

National Leader for Soil Survey

Interpretations, National Soil Survey

Center, Lincoln, Nebraska, from August

1999 to August 2001; and as a Senior

Soil Scientist from August 2001 to

January 2002.

Berman’s M.S. thesis is entitled

“Soil Factors Affecting the

Pathogenecity of Cylindrocladium

scoparium,” and his dissertation is

entitled “Use of Soil Classification to

Predict Forest Site Quality on the

Southeastern Coastal Plain.” Berman

authored the Soil Survey of

Cumberland and Hoke Counties, North

Carolina (1984) and has published

numerous articles in Soil Science

Society of America Journal, Journal of

Soil and Water Conservation, and Soil

Survey Horizons. Four of these

published articles are centered on the

systematics of soil survey in the United

States:
3

NCSS Newsletter

Karl Hipple

Cathy Seybold

New National Leader

for Soil Survey

Interpretations

Karl W. Hipple has been selected as National Leader for Soil

Survey Interpretations at the National

Soil Survey Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.

Dr. Hipple has spent most of his soil

survey career in the Pacific Northwest

working for the Idaho Soil

Conservation Commission and the SCS

and NRCS in Idaho and Washington.

Karl was born and raised in

Pennsylvania and graduated from Old

Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia,

with a B.S. in biology and physical

science. After teaching secondary

school for 3 years in Virginia, he was

accepted in graduate school at the

University of Idaho (UI), Moscow,

Idaho. He completed both M.S. and

Ph.D. degrees at UI. While studying at

UI, Karl had the good fortune to

actively map soils in the Latah County

area, Idaho, soil survey. “Working in

your chosen career field while

completing the academic portion of an

advanced degree, is like having your

cake and eating it too,” says Hipple.

Karl worked in northern Idaho as a

Cathy Seybold Joins the

Soil Survey

Interpretations Staff

Cathy A. Seybold has been reassigned to the Soil Survey

Interpretations Staff at the National Soil

Survey Center, Lincoln, Nebraska. Dr.

Seybold has spent the last 6 years

working for the NRCS Soil Quality

Institute in Corvallis, Oregon. Before

the years at the Soil Quality Institute,

Cathy spent 2.5 years working for

NRCS in Virginia as part of the Center

for Excellence for Water Quality, under

a cooperative agreement between

NRCS and Virginia State University. At

Virginia State University, Cathy taught

soils classes and conducted research in

the fate and transport of pesticides in

soils and vegetative filter strips.

Cathy was born and raised in

Wisconsin and attended the University

of Nebraska-Lincoln on a track

scholarship. At Nebraska, she received

a B.S. degree in soil science and a M.S.

degree in agronomy. During her senior

year at Nebraska, she was a student

worker at the Soil Survey Laboratory in

Lincoln, working for Otto Baumer.

After completing her M.S. degree, she

worked for NRCS as a soil scientist

mapping soils in southeast Kern

County, California. After mapping for a

couple of years, Cathy went on leave

(leave-without-pay) to get a Ph.D. in

soil science (with a minor in geology)

from the University of WisconsinMadison. Cathy returned to NRCS and

was placed in the NRCS State Office in

California, where she worked on waterquality issues. Shortly thereafter, she

went on to work for NRCS in Virginia.

Cathy is a member of the Soil

Science Society of America and the

Soil and Water Conservation Society of

America and is a certified ARCPACS

professional soil scientist. 

soil scientist from 1975 to 1981 (in

Clearwater, Nez Perce, Lewis, and

Latah Counties) and as a soil survey

project leader in east-central Idaho

from 1981 to 1989 (in Custer, Lemhi,

and Butte Counties). For the past 12

years, Karl has been state soil

correlator, soil database manager, and

state soil scientist in Washington State.

Karl is a member of the Idaho Soil

Scientist Association, the Washington

Society of Professional Soil Scientists

(past president, president-elect, and

newsletter editor), and the Soil and

Water Conservation Society of

America. 

Hudson, B.D. 1980. Ranges of

Characteristics—How Valid are

They? Soil Survey Horizons 21 (3):

7-11.

Hudson, B.D. 1990. Concepts of Soil

Mapping and Interpretation. Soil

Survey Horizons 31 (3): 63-72.

Hudson, B.D. 1992. Soil Survey as

Paradigm-Based Science. Soil

Science Society of America

Journal 56 (3): 836-841.

Hudson, B.D., and J.R. Culver. 1994.

Map Scale in the Soil Survey.

Soil Survey Horizons 35 (2): 36-

40. 
4

NCSS Newsletter

Soil Biology Program

Evaluates Organic Matter

Pools

By Carol Franks, Research Soil Scientist,

Natural Resources Conservation Service,

National Soil Survey Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.

The Soil Biology Program was implemented by the National

Soil Survey Center (NSSC) to develop

an understanding of, and eventually

develop soil interpretations about,

biological characteristics of soils.

Along with climate, soil organisms and

micro-organisms control the turnover

rate of organic matter and thus play an

important role in energy and nutrient

cycling in soil systems. A primary

objective of the Soil Biology Program

is to evaluate and measure soil

biological characteristics related to the

amount and turnover rate of organic

matter of the three organic matter pools

in soils—fast pool, intermediate pool,

and slow pool. Pool data are useful in

the study of carbon dynamics and

macronutrient cycling, soil quality

determinations, understanding of global

climate change, evaluation of long-term

soil fertility, and soil survey

enhancement. The data can also help

farmers, ranchers, other land owners,

land use planners, and conservationists

assess the effects of conservation

management practices and erosion.

Initiated as a research program, the

Soil Biology Program is now providing

soil analyses and assistance on a

limited, request basis for special

projects around the country. Eligible

projects are selected in a review

process from those submitted at the

state level through state soil scientists,

major land resource area offices, and

state conservationists. Available soil

analyses include organic carbon with

enhanced accuracy through gas

chromatography; soil carbon to

nitrogen ratios related to the

composition of plant and microbial

communities; microbial biomass and

activity, two labile carbon fractions, and

potential mineralizable nitrogen from

microbial activity for the fast pool; root

biomass and particulate organic matter

(POM >53 μm) for the intermediate

pool; and clay associated amorphous

organic matter (C-Min <53 μm) for the

slow pool.

Also available, for general use, are

fact sheets describing field methods for

determining soil fauna, root biomass,

and total soil organic matter.

Information and educational materials

available include “Basic Biological

Factors of Soil Carbon and Nitrogen,”

poster or page-size handouts; fact

sheets about the Soil Biology

Program; “Implementation of Soil

Biological Analyses at the NRCSNSSC Soil Survey Laboratory,” a

poster; and “Evaluation and

Interpretation of Soil Biological Data

from Two Selected Sites,” a poster.

Some of the above, including the

posters, are available on the NSSC Web

site (http://www.nssc.nrcs.usda.gov).

For more information, contact

Carol Franks, National Soil Survey

Center (402-437-5316 or

carol.franks@nssc.nrcs.usda.gov). 

Computer-Assisted

Checks for Coordination

of Prime Farmland Soils,

Capability Classification,

and Productivity Ratings

By Ray Sinclair, Soil Scientist, National Soil

Survey Center, Natural Resources Conservation

Service, Lincoln, Nebraska.

A new report script is available in NASIS that will help soil

scientists determine which soils qualify

as prime farmland. The script evaluates

soils using the prime farmland criteria

printed in Title 7 of the Code of Federal

Regulations-Part 657 dated January 1,

2001. The report produces a table of

soils data and prime farmland

classification by major land resource

area (MLRA), soil survey, or county/

parish. These tables will help scientists

identify errors or inconsistencies in the

soil database. The reports will also help

scientists coordinate prime farmland

map units across county and state lines

throughout each major land resource

area. Since many of the same soil and

environmental characteristics used in

the prime farmland criteria are also

used to place soils into the land

capability classification system or

assess soil productivity ratings, the

script can also help scientists determine

land capability classification and

develop productivity ratings. The

MLRA table is especially useful

because it reduces the time required to

search the database for soils in the

MLRA. For more information, contact

Ray Sinclair, National Soil Survey

Center (402-437-5699 or

ray.sinclair@nssc.nrcs.usda.gov). 

A History Lesson

By Craig Ditzler, National Leader for Soil

Classification and Standards, Natural Resources

Conservation Service, National Soil Survey

Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.1

Douglas Helms, NRCS Historian, Washington, D.C., has

published a fascinating article linking

soil science to the history of the

Southern United States (Helms,

Douglas. 2000. Soil and Southern

History. Agricultural History 74: 723-

758). He begins his article with the

1

 Future editions of the National Cooperative

Soil Survey Newsletter will include reviews of

books or journal articles by one of the Soil

Survey Division Leaders.
5

NCSS Newsletter

suggestion that a knowledge of science

can help the agricultural historian to

better interpret historical developments.

He goes on to relate to the reader how

soil properties characteristic of some

major soils of the Southern United

States influenced the historical

development of the region. The primary

soil-related influence on early

development pertains to the parent

materials from which the soils formed

and the resulting degree of natural

fertility. After a short primer on soil

fertility and plant nutrition, Helms

states:

The bases and phosphorous do

not lie evenly distributed on

the earth’s surface. Mother

nature has been rather fickle in

the distribution of base-rich

parent materials. Farmers

immemorial either found baserich soil upon which to settle,

or brought these fertilizers to

their lands, or employed

management devices such as

shifting cultivation in basepoor soils.

Helms explores several interesting

examples illustrating how soil

properties, especially those related to

natural fertility, affected the

development of the region.

One major group of soils in the

region is the Ultisols, which Helms

describes as follows:

The red iron oxide-coated,

kaolinite clays of the

Piedmont, termed ultisols,

derived mainly from

metamorphic and igneous

granites and granite gneisses

and are low in the content of

bases.

Helms suggests that historians have

generally misunderstood the limited

suitability of these infertile soils for

agricultural systems lacking sources of

supplemental fertilizers. In Helms’ view

historians have over-emphasized

concepts of early Southern farmers

“exhausting” or “depleting” the soil and

then moving on to clear new lands after

in effect abusing previously cleared

areas. Helms explains that in fact early

farmers of the South’s Ultisols

practiced a form of shifting agriculture

common in many tropical regions. He

points out that the amount of nutrients

concentrated in a pine tree over a 20- to

30-year period is roughly equivalent to

the nutrients required by cultivated

crops over a 100-day growing season.

So it makes sense that the early farmers

developed a system of large land

holdings where the trees of one area

would be cleared and burned to release
6

their store of nutrients. After a few

seasons, the nutrients would be used up

and that plot had to be allowed to go

back into trees to begin the slow

process of pulling nutrients from below

and storing them in new trees for

release again in 20 to 30 years. Helms

notes that in 1860 rural areas of

Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi

could support only 17.3 residents per

square mile, while the more fertile

lands (Mollisols) of Ohio, Indiana, and

Illinois supported 37.5 residents per

square mile. These differing capacities

had a significant impact on the number

of rural youths available to fight in the

Civil War.

Helms contrasts the Ultisols of the

Piedmont and Coastal Plain to the

limestone-derived Alfisols of the

famous Shenandoah Valley (part of the

Ridge and Valley Province), which he

describes as follows:

Explorers found luxuriant tall

prairie grasses teeming with

wildlife, and the farmers

established vibrant grassland

agriculture in the limestonederived soils. These soils, rich

in the bases and phosphorous,

unlike many of the Piedmont

and coastal plain soils, could

sustain low yields of

production continuously or at

least for a long time.

Historians generally credit the early

farmers of this region, especially the

German immigrants, with practicing

exceptionally good soil stewardship and

conservation. They established

permanent pastures to raise cattle,

recycled manure to their croplands,

grew nitrogen-supplying legumes, and

employed soil-conserving crop

rotations. Helms correctly points out

that it was the inherent nature of these

soils, rich in calcium, magnesium, and

phosphorus and endowed with

favorable pH, that made it possible for

these farmers to practice intensive

diversified agriculture, unlike their

contemporaries farming on the Ultisols.

One of the more interesting findings

reported in this paper relates to the

migration of early settlers from

Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania

into the Deep South via the Great

Philadelphia Wagon Road. Helms

presents a map showing the route

stretching from Philadelphia, across

central Virginia and the Carolinas to

Augusta, Georgia. He has

superimposed the location of the road

on the location of Alfisols in the region.

Remarkably, the path of this important

migration route (believed to have been

traveled for centuries by native

Americans following traditional

hunting routes) closely follows

scattered areas of Alfisols across the

Piedmont.

The Alfisols, while not as high in

fertility as the limestone-derived soils

of the Ridge and Valley Province, are

significantly more fertile than the

Ultisols of the surrounding piedmont.

The Alfisols formed in material

weathered from metamorphic or

igneous mafic rocks, such as gabbro,

diorite, and diabase, or they occur in

Triassic-age basins where the soils are

influenced by ancient volcanic ash

deposits from the now eroded away

Uhwharrie Mountains and locally

derived sediments.

The Alfisols, although fairly clayey

and sticky because of their content of

smectitic clays, were superior to the

surrounding Ultisols of the piedmont

and were likely sought out by the early

immigrants as desirable farmland

because of their natural fertility. Helms

points out that historians have generally

overlooked this fact because, in light of

today’s technology, these clayey

Alfisols (such as White Store soils,

which are fine, mixed, active, thermic

NCSS Newsletter

Oxyaquic Vertic Hapludalfs) are not

very desirable farmland. Today,

abundant artificial fertilizers and ready

supplies of lime make the Ultisols

capable of producing continual high

yields of row crops. At the time of

settlement, however, the White Store

soils and other Alfisols were considered

superior. As a result, historians have

generally assumed that immigrants,

such as the Lutherans who settled on

the Alfisol areas of Rowan County,

North Carolina, were late arrivals

having to settle for what is (today)

considered less than desirable land.

Helms argues that they purposely chose

these areas. Given the technology of the

period, these were among the best soils

in the area because of their natural

fertility. (There is a lesson here

suggesting that our soil interpretations

need to keep pace with technology

changes over time.)

Helms goes on to relate similar

analyses for the loess soils on the bluffs

along the Mississippi River, the soils of

the black belt in Alabama and

Mississippi, and the delta soils of the

Yazoo and Mississippi Rivers. He

provides an insightful understanding of

fluvial geomorphic processes resulting

in such features as well drained, coarsetextured natural levees close to the

channel and clayey, wet, back-swamp

areas against the uplands. He concludes

that soil science can contribute to our

understanding of history:

For the student of agricultural

or environmental history, the

knowledge provided by the

relatively new field of soil

science is a boon to

understanding historical

developments. In fact, a basic

soil science, with some

emphasis on agronomy, is

highly recommended to

students in these disciplines. 
7

NCSS Newsletter

Soil in a Story by

Flannery O’Connor

By Stanley Anderson, Editor, USDA, Natural

Resources Conservation Service, National Soil

Survey Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.

You have to, uh, dig pretty deepto find references to soil in

literature. I found one by searching for

an answer to a query. Last September,

the following message from a Cindy

someone @yahoo.com was forwarded

to me:

Hello, I am researching for

a play based on Flannery

O’Connor’s short stories, and

was curious as to why the soil

collected in Milledgeville was

a red color?

Please feel free to email or

call with any type of answer.

Thank you so much for

your time!

Cindy

I knew that O’Connor (1925-1964)

was a Southern writer, so I figured that

Milledgeville is in a Southern state. I

searched for “Milledgeville” on the

Internet. The town proved to be

Milledgeville, Georgia, the capital of

the state from 1807 to 1868. This town

is in Baldwin County, which is in the

Southern Piedmont and Carolina and

Georgia Sand Hills Major Land

Resource Areas (MLRAs). O’Connor

lived in or near Milledgeville for many

of the years of her short life. I did a

little research and sent Cindy the

following message:

Cindy:

I assume that the town is

Milledgeville, GA. See the

Soil Survey of Baldwin, Jones,

and Putnam Counties,

Georgia, which was published

by USDA, Soil Conservation

Service (now the Natural

Resources Conservation

Service), in 1976 and should

be available at the NRCS State

Office in Athens, GA.

The dominant map unit in

Milledgeville is DyC, which is

the Davidson-Urban land

complex, 2 to 10 percent

slopes. See detailed map

sheets 53 and 54. The soil is

Part of map sheet 53 in the Soil Survey of Baldwin, Jones, and Putnam Counties, Georgia. Map

unit DyC is a Davidson-Urban land complex, WiE and WiC2 are Wilkes soils, and CyB2,

CyC2, CZC2, and CZE2 are Cecil soils.
8

NCSS Newsletter

most likely the Davidson

series, which has a dark

reddish brown surface layer

and a dark red subsoil. (See

pages 14-16 of the soil

survey.) According to the

description of map unit DyC

(page 16), “In most places the

original soil profiles have been

severely modified by cutting,

filling, and shaping.” It is

likely that this urban

development has exposed the

dark red subsoil in many

places.

The reddish color probably

results from the form of iron

(probably hematite) in the soil.

For insight, see the definitions

of “hematite” in Webster’s

New Collegiate Dictionary

(1977) and in Glossary of

Geology (1987), edited by

Robert L. Bates and Julia A.

Jackson.

Stanley P. Anderson

I wondered which O’Connor story

(or stories) Cindy was using as the basis

for the play, so I asked her for the title

(or titles). I was disappointed when I

received the following response:

 As far as I know, it’s not an

actual reference to the soil

being red (the director found a

sample of the soil on her trip),

but two out of the three stories

(“Greenleaf” and “A View of

the Woods”) have much to do

with the land.

More later.

Cindy

I was further disappointed when I

read “Greenleaf,” which has no

references to soil, but I hit, uh, pay dirt

when I read “A View of the Woods”

and discovered that soil has a bit part in

the story.

“A View of the Woods” (1957) is

about Mr. Fortune, a willful old man

who, in the name of progress, sells off

his land in pieces, mainly to spite his

son-in-law, and Mary Fortune, his

youngest grandchild, the only family

member he can tolerate. The story

opens with a description of a “machine

that lifted out dirt and threw it in a pile”

on a lakeside lot that was once part of

Fortune’s farm. There is a “red

corrugated lake” at this site. The lake,

like the red road running in front of the

farm, gets its color from the soil.

The second paragraph of the story

describes how Mary and her

grandfather “watched, sometimes for

hours, while the machine systematically

ate a red hole in what had once been a

cow pasture.” The third paragraph

describes Mary “looking down into the

red pit, watching the big disembodied

gullet gorge itself on the clay, then, with

the sound of a deep sustained nausea

and a slow mechanical revulsion, turn

and spit it up.”

The story ends tragically with the

death of both Mary and her grandfather,

who have a violent confrontation when

he makes plans to sell off the front lawn

and thus threatens to destroy their view

of the woods. He strikes her head

against a rock three times, killing her,

and then he dies of a heart attack. The

clearing in the pine woods where this

tragedy occurs is described as “an ugly

red bald spot” where a few stones

protrude from the clay.

As the old man dies, he imagines

that the red lake is engulfing him. Not

knowing how to swim, he looks for

help, “but the place was deserted except

for one huge yellow monster which sat

to the side, as stationary as he was,

gorging itself on clay.” The image of

the machine moving the red clay is thus

repeated in the last sentence of the

story. It frames (or, more accurately,

brackets) the story.

It is possible that the soil in “A View

of the Woods” is a Cecil soil, especially

if the setting is on or near the farm

(called “Andalusia”) where O’Connor

lived with her mother from 1951 to

1964. In a letter dated May 4, 1955,

O’Connor says that the farm is “4 miles

from Milledgeville on the road to

Eatonton,” and in a letter dated June19,

1957, she says that it is “two houses

from the road on Hwy. 441, four miles

before you get to Milledgeville.” The

likelihood that the story is set on this

farm is indicated in a letter dated

January 13, 1957, in which O’Connor

describes the place as “a dairy farm”

where “most of the violences carried to

their logical conclusions in the stories

manage to be warded off.” Andalusia is

most likely in an area of Cecil sandy

loam, 2 to 6 percent slopes, eroded

(CyB2), in a delineation in the southcentral part of map sheet 35 in the Soil

Profile of a Cecil soil. Depth is marked in

inches.
9

NCSS Newsletter

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all

its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex,

religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital or family

status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities

who require alternative means for communication of program information

(Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at

(202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD).

To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil

Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW,

Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice and TDD).

USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

Survey of Baldwin, Jones, and Putnam

Counties, Georgia.

According to the official series

description, Cecil soils have a surface

layer and subsurface layer of very dark

grayish brown and brown sandy loam

about 7 inches thick and a subsoil that

consists of yellowish red sandy clay

loam about 4 inches thick, red clay

about 29 inches thick, and red clay

loam about 10 inches thick.

Other O”Conner works that refer to

soil, mainly red Georgia clay, include

“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” (1953),

“The River” (1953), “The Displaced

Person” (1954), “A Temple of the Holy

Ghost” (1954), “You Can’t Be Any

Poorer Than Dead” (1955), and the

novel The Violent Bear It Away (1960),

which revises and expands “You Can’t

Be Any Poorer Than Dead.”

In an essay about peacocks entitled

“The King of the Birds” (1961),

O’Connor notes that as a child she did

not have “a scientific temperament.” In

a 1959 conversation with Betsy

Lochridge of The Atlanta Journal and

Constitution Magazine, she says,

“Don’t make me out a farm girl. All I

know about the land is, it’s underneath

me.” Her stories show little interest in

The south-central part of map sheet 35 in the Soil Survey of Baldwin, Jones, and Putnam

Counties, Georgia. The farm “Andalusia” is probably in the delineation of map unit CyB2

along the road (Highway 441).

soil as soil or as a productive growing

medium for plants. An awareness of red

Georgia clay is about as, uh, deep into

soil science as she gets. Basic details

about the color, texture, and depth of

soil in the stories help to anchor her

themes, which are mainly religious, in

the real world or serve to strengthen her

imagery.

References

Fitzgerald, Sally, ed. 1988. Flannery

O’Connor: Collected Works. The

Library of America.

Magee, Rosemary M. 1987.

Conversations with Flannery

O’Connor. University Press of

Mississippi.

United States Department of

Agriculture, Soil Conservation

Service. 1976. Soil Survey of

Baldwin, Jones, and Putnam

Counties, Georgia. 

Language Matters

By Stanley Anderson, Editor, USDA, Natural

Resources Conservation Service, National Soil

Survey Center, Lincoln, Nebraska.

The following is from theunedited proceedings of the

2001 NCSS Conference: “Partner with

the primate sector.”