Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1851-04-26

Mr.. Solon Robinson, one of the editors of the
American Agriculturist furnished the following
article for the first number of 1.-The Soil of the
South
How little is known of this, either by residents
or on-resdents? Its fertility is a hidden mvste-
ry. Those unaccustomed to Its productions, while
passing over long miles of tresome sand, are ready
to exclam, t'what miserable poor barren coun-
try" True, there are some partially barren lands,
but the proportion is very small. The traveller is
surprised to hear that some of the lands which he
despised as worthless, have yielded half bale of
cotton to the acre, for series of years. under a
system of cultivation that would not produce
enought grain to feed the cultiYator in half the
northern States. Much of this poor miserable soil
the stranger is apt to term it, possesses most
wonderful recuperative power, and is capable of
more severe treatment than any other similar soil
in the world.
Besides the broad bottom lands of the richest al
luvion, which abounds upon every river, and up
on almost every creek, there are vast tracts of
southern soil lying hundred of feet above the pres
ent flow of floods, just fertile as those which
have been formed within the present memory of
man. may point out the high bluffs of Natchez
and Vicksburg-the prairie lands of the Tombig
bee and the cane brake lands of Marengo and ad-
Joining counties in Alabama. There is another
kind of soil of the South, that value more high
lv than the aluvial bottoms This is what is call
ed the red lands, like those for instance, around
Tallahassee The utmost exertion of bad farming
that even Florida can boast of is,insufficient to
destroy this kind of land. 1t really amused me to
hear people talk about this and that field being
out Why, sir, you might well talk to the
Chattahoochee about wearing out the granite bed
over which it foams and tumbles along the front of
your CITY, Upon examination, found that instead
of land being worn those who had made the at
tempt lis destruction had never got into it. They
had only oosened up little coating of vegetable
mould upon the surface, which they had scratched
up and down the steep side hills with thing they
called plough, until they had succeeded in SEN
ding all this loose matter down into creeks with
every shower until the land was no longer produc-
tive and then uttered the foul SANDER upon of
the best soils in the world, by saying it worn
out Worn out indeed Why, the sloven had
never made an impression upon the soil-that re-
mains unbroken. 1t is in many places twenty feet
deep-a rich loan colored red by oxide of iron,
and having enough of that substance in it to make
it compact together firmly that wells stand with
out walling through long years; even bitches re-
tain their form long time. 1t is full of cacare-
Gus matter, that renders it almost inexhaustable,
and only requires to be stirred up to the air and
mixed with vegetable matter from the very bottom:
and it will continue to produce good crops until
the whole strata is washed off, which will be long
time after all the generations of the earth have
been swept away This kind of soil is very abun-
dant throughout middle Florida, Alabama and
other States.
j There is another kind of soil of the south, thai
as yet has hardly began to attract attention, thai
i at no distant day will be looked upon as the bes
of all others | allude to the almost yalueless and
despsed sacamp lands. Whenever this land ol
lands has been skillfully drained and put into cult
walton it proves more valuable and productive thar
any other. Gen. Hammond of South Carolina
has done as much at least as any other man to de
monstrate the value of upland swamps for corn OF
cotton. Thousands of acres of swamp near The
coast have been made available for rice, and con
siderable quantities of the long staple cotton. A
present upands too cheap and labor too dear t.
| expect any great improvements IN bringing thes'
immense tracts of rich soil into use; but that TIM
: will come, and the time will never come when tn
soil of the South will be worn out and become bar
/ ren and worthless. The most worn out piece Q
old field of Georgia can be restored by the use G
Fertilizers, such as lime, plaster, guano bone dust