The gold leaf., 1899-11-09
(By Prof. W, r. Massev.l

1t may be we'll said that the farmers
OF North Carolina are confronted by a
condition and not a theory" The
short-sighted policy of the past has
placed a large portion of our soils into
very unproductive condition, and
the problem that confronts every
thoughtful farmer is how to restore
and to retain the productiveness OF
the wasted soils. The idea that soil
originally fertile, and of such nature
as to retain fertility, can be perma-
nently worn out by cropping, we be-
lieve to be an error, and we be-
lieve that the unproductive condition
Of much of our clay soils is the result
of poor culture, and that they still re-
tain a large portion of their former
fertility if properly treated. Of course
there are large areas OF soil that We're
naturally thin in the beginning and
these have rapidly been exhausted of
their little store. Many deep sandy
soils that formerly had moderate
store of vegetable matter have been
reduced to absolute barrenness, and
these soils being of 4 leach nature are
the hardest of all to retain in Il per-
manent state of productiveness. But
such soils constitute but a small part
Of our domain. Over a large portion
of the State there is a subSoil of the
deep red clay peculiar to the Pied
mont region east of the Blue Ridge
mountains, which when properly
treated, is a soil of almost ineNhausti-
bic fertility, but which in many
places has been so badly treated that
it has reached very unproduntive
state. and large areas have been
turned back to grow up in broom
sedge and pines. which under fairly
systematic cultivation might have
been retained in highly productive
state for an indefinite period.
Then in the coastal plain there are
wide areas of level sandy soil under
laid with compact clay subsoil, as
fertile in its nature as the red clay o f
the uplands, but which through
the slovenly scratching of the
past has become very unproductive,
but which is the easiest of all the
soils of the State to redeem and to
maintain in a productive condition if
any proper system of farming is
adopted in place of the old time plant
ing year after year in a single crop.
Then, too, we have in the State
large areas of black, peaty soil, that
has been reclaimed from swamp, and
larger areas of the same that may
still be reclaimed from swamp condi-
tions. Much Of this soil is of almost
inexhaustible fertility even under the
slack system of cultivation TO which
it has been subjected. But there is
with these black, peaty soils right
and wrong way, and the right way is
to so cultivate and change their char
acter by proper treatment as to retain
and increase their natural produc
tiveness to point far beyond what
they have been made to do. 1t is
with the hope that we may be able to
throw out some hints that we may aid
the thinking farmers of the State in
the improvement of their land that
we write this bulletin, for it is the
duty of the Experiment Station to do
all in its power to disseminate infor
nation on all subjects connected with
agriculture and horticulture. And |
would say here that we will be always
ready in the future, as we have been
in the past, to aid the farmers of the
State by answering their letters on
any subject that interests them.