The Tupelo journal., 1903-01-23
AND PLANTER.
THE SOILS OF THE SOUTH.
Their ManuriaI Needs, Owing to
Their Variety, a subject For SPEC
ciaI study BY the Farmer.

Their Variety, a subject For SPEC
ciaI study by the Farmer.
The wonderful variety of soils that
are found in the south requires that
special study should be given to each,
and often to limited localities. The
experiment stations have done a
great deal towards this study, but as
their studies are generally confined
to one locality and soil the results
are seldom applicable to large areas
in the state. In North Carolina the
department of agriculture has wise
ly undertaken to study by actual cul-
ture the typical soils of the various
sections of the state and has estab-
lished test farms on the soils most
typical of the various sections from
the east coast country to the upper
Piedmont section. Results already
obtained seem to show that there
should be a wide difference in the
fertilization of the different charac-
tiers of soil. In one section of the
eastern part of the state the farmers
| ldQ come 10 VIC COHCluSloi thht ~
never paid them to apply phosphoric
acid to their soil. But we believe that
the work of the department
has tended to show that this
opinion may have grown out of an
accumulation in the soil of certain
farms from previous dressings, and
that really the soil around them did
respond to the use of phosphoric
acid. On the red clay uplands OF the
south there is no doubt q great de-
ficiency in nitrogen, owing largely to
the lack of organic matter in the
soils. the result of a long continue
ton of cotton culture OH lands origi-
nally poorly supplied with humus.
Even when newly cleared from the
forest the southern uplands have a
smaller amount of humus than sim
liar lands in the north. This is due
in a great extent to the absence of
snow in winter and the open charac-
ter of the forest III the hills. The
dead leaves are blown away to the
hollows and bottom lands, while in
the north the snow falls and packs
them down to decay where they fall
and thus to accumulate vegetable
matter and humus in the soil. Hence
the first need of the southern upland
is for organic matter, not only for
the purpose of getting whatever of
nitrogen it may contain, but for the
more important purpose Of retaining
moisture in the soil and aiding in the
proper solution Of whatever manurial
matters may be applied. All the old
cultivated soils are deficient in phos-
phoric acid. especially for the produc-
ton of grain crops. East of the Blue
Ridge, where the red clay upland soil
is the result of the decomposition of
granite rocks, the soil has a great
store Of potash in it in the form of
an insoluble ~silicate, and the question
that comes to the c%ultivator is
whether it is more economical to get
at this potash in the soil through the
use of lime and plaster or to apply
potash in an already soluble form.
This is a matter that each cultivator
of the soil must decide for himself.
I have often said that really the only
man who can find out what his soil
needs and what he need not buy is
the farmer himself. A chemist may
analyze your soil and tell you that it
has in the few upper inches an
abundant supply of all the elements
needed as plant food, and yet you
may know that the soil is absolutely
unproductive because of the unavail-
able condition in which the food eX-
lists. Hence only experiments with
the different fertilizing materials
alone and in various combinations
can enable the farmer to determine
what the manurial needs of his par
ticular soil are. Bat there are west
of the mountains red clay .uplands
that look like those east of the
range But these are of different
origin. They have more humus, it is
true, but they have not the same con-
tent of phosphoric acid and potash
that the granite soils have. Then, too,
east CT the Blue Ridge there are the
typical tobacco soils, gray in color.
They are fitted for the production of
the finest tobacco, but are deficient
in what the red clays contain largely,
potash. The red lands are not select
ed for tobacco, Notwithstanding their
potash content, because experience
has taught the growers that their
type of tobacco can not be grown on
red clay soil. Hence, as it has been
shown that the gray soils make the
best tobacco if properly fortified
and that tobacco uses potash proba-
bly, more largely than any other
southern crop the wise tobacco grow
err will see to it that his fertilizer has
a large percentage of both nitrogen
for a strong growth and potash for
the perfection of the leaf. They have
found hat On these gray tobacco
soils a heavy application of phos-
phoric acid tends to make what they
call honey Or big yeined tobacco, and
they have gradually reduced the Ter
centage of phosphoric acid, and in
some instances have abandoned its
use entirely as a tobacco fertilizer.
We doubt the wisdom of this how
ever, for phosphoric acid is apt to be
the controlling factor in a fertilizer
mixture, and the potash can not have
it's best effect if the phosphoric acid
is not present in sufficient amount,as
there seems to be a sort Of interde-
pendence between them. From what
l have said it will be easy to see that
on a single farm there should be a