The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-08-29

lima must be we'll adapted to all OF
them. January 1, 1900, the Department Oh
Agriculture estimates that you had l4o'-
1874 horses, 120512 mules, 243,29S DAIRY
COWS, PAS other cattle 235,zbO sheep,
and 1858, 7O3 hogs, with total vaiue OF
27,763774. Your capacity to produce
domestic animals of course depends en-
tirely upon the condition of your soil
and the standard of your agricultural
management
OF the reports received by your Labor
Commissioner in 1898, 67 per cent say
that the fertility Of the land is well
maintained, while SO per cent report that
it is not. My remarks today are for the
benefit of the SO per cent. l find from
the same source, your Labor Commits
sioner, that the greatest industry in the
eastern section of your State is the saw
ing and dressing Of lumber, which is
only exceeded in the entire State by
the manufacture of cotton and tobacco.
The time has come when the condition of
our forests requires careful inquiry. The
destruction is decidedly greater than the
growth. The sections lying along the
headwaters of your streams are now be-
ing considered by the Department of Ag-
riculture, in conformity with authority
from Congress, In order that those wa
ters, to which you look for power in turn
ing your mills, may not be dried up
through the utter destruction of the
woods where the streams rise.
The Southern States have much heav-
Ter rainfall than the Northern States.
For example, the average rainfall in your
own State of North Carolina is SO inches
ss Oh
Yet the Southern States suffer much
more from drouth than do the States of
the Mississippi Valley. The cause is
found in the conditions Of the soil in the
two localities. In the newer portions of
our country, where there is sufficient
rainfall to grow crops, and where there
is deep soil full of humus, much less
rainfall will mature crops. The South
ern States have been under cultivation
for a long time, but humus is becoming
scarce in the SOIL Humus is decayed
vegetation. When the soil is wel-stored
with it, it is able to retain moisture.
Continual cultivation oxidises or burns
out the humus and leaves the soil in
capable of retaining moisture. The heavy
rainfall of the South gives you large
streams, much larger than are found in
fall is less. The plant food formed in
your soil from humus that may exist
there is washed out much more rapidly
into your streams than if the soil were
we'll stored with organic matter. If the
waters of your great streams were
analysed when they are flowing thick
with soil, it would be found that the
plant food is flowing away from the
10 Dtttt soil in,
as to retain these things until the plant
can use them is an absolute necessity.
A drouth where rainfall is heavy is
followed by different consequences from
a drouth where rainfall is light. In the
latter condition the nitrates and other
plant food remain in the soil; in the
former they have been washed away.
Drouth on an exhausted soil, where the
humus has been washed out, scorches
while it lasts, leaving the soil no bet
ter from arrested growth, but drouth on
a soil full of humus arrests the growth
for the time being, while the plant food
remains ready for use, as soon as mois
ture is supplied to liquefy the nitrates
and minerals and prepare them for the
use of the plant.
In 1894 we had a drouth in Iowa, Of
such severity as practically to destroy
the corn crop. In 1895, as soon as mois-
ture came, our crops were the heaviest
in the history of the State, showing
conclusively that the effect of the drouth
in 1894 was merely to look up the plant
food and let it remain until the following
year. During several months of the
winter, the soil was frozen solid, when
no loss of plant food could take place. 1t
is different with you in the South. Your
soil does not freeze up in the winter
while you have rains, that wash out the
plant food. We find it necessary in the
North, in order to maintain the fertility
of our soils, to rotate crops, so that
grazing crops shall occupy the ground at
least ne-third of time. We get our
greatest crops from blowing up our pas
lures. | think it is entirely practicable
for Southern cultivators to replace the
humus in their soil by growing grasses
and legumes, because there is a great
| demand at the present time, and prob
ably always will be, for tirst-class
horses, cattle sheep and other grazing
| animals, and the Southern cultivator is
! famed for his excellence as flock master.
The cotton crop of the South has been
! suffering on account of drouth, and on
account of heavy rains. / will not at the
| present time discuss the latter condition;
| there are, of course, methods by which
| the bad effects of heavy rains on bottom
(Nao4;o,,od nm cIw%h DO1nN