The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-03-02
Improying Poor Land.

Improving Poor Land.
A North Carolina correspondent
writes II have read somewhere thai
land that was originally rich cannot be
made poor, but can only be exhausted
80 to speak; can easily be brought up
but land that was poor In the begin
ming cannot be made permanently
rich. I have frequently given it as
nv belief that land that was originally
fertile, and Is of q good mechanical
texture; can never be really worn out
though by bad farming it may be
brought into very unproductive con-
dition whilestill having in it an abund.
ance of plant food which it's condi'
tion renders unavailable. The scien'
lists of the Department Of Agriculture
who have been studying soils an
nounce as one of their discoveries thai
all cultivable soils have in them abOut
the same average amount of
soluble plant food, and that the only
difference In their productiveness is In
their mechanical condition and the
readiness which they supply water
for the solution Of plant food. II this
is true, then the fact that the chemist
finds more nitrogen or phosphoric acid
or potash in one soil than in another
has nothing whatever to do with the
needs of that soil as to additional plant
food to be supplied in fertilizers. IF the
amount of soluble plant food In all soils
is the same, then all soils need the same
treatment as to additional plant food to
be supplied in fertilizers. The soil that
was originally fertile had in 1t abund'
ance of humus. A long series of years
in which the soils have been cultivated
and crops taken off from it has com.
pletely oxydized this humus and used
it up, and the mechanical condition OF
the soil is very different. Its clayey
matter has run together and the air is
shut out. 1t dries out rapidly and falls
to furnish water to the roots and to dis
solve plant food, and though a labora.
tory experiment may show that 1t still
contains the average amount OF soluble
plant food, the water is not present for
it's solution by reason of the rapid dry
ing off of the soil. 1t has also gotten
colder by reason of the loss of humus,
and absorbs and retains less heat, and
heat is essential to the growth of plants.
Thus, while chemical analysis may
show that it has an abundance OF PLAN
food, the food is locked up and plants
cannot get at it. This Is just the condi,
tion of large areas in the South. But
to say that no soil originally poor or un'
productive cannot be made permanent.
" fertile and productive is hardly true.
There are thousands of acres In the
South which, when first cleared, were
in an unprodnctive condition by reason
of lack of humus. The red-clay up.
lands of the South have naturally less
humus than similar lands in the North,
or in our open woodlands the leavesl
are blown away to the hollows and
bottoms in winter, while in the North
thew are packed down by snow and
held to rot where they fell, and thus q
larger amount of humus or vegetable
decay is found there. But when these
red-clay soils, by proper rotation ol
crops and the use Of legume crops, are
stored with humus-making matter
they rapidly increase in productiveness
because of their improved mechanical
condition. I once remarked to a
friend, good farmer in an improving
section, that thought a certain. neld
of corn was poor for a piece OF new
ground, "Newly-cleared land here, "
he said, "is the poorest land we have.
and we work it few years and gel
some clover or peas on it,"
I have never forgotten the remark,
though it was made years ago, and II
set me to thinking about the matter,
and I became convinced that so far as
the clay uplands of the South are con.
cerned he was right, and that the flrst
step in their development and perma'
nent productiveness must be the get
ting into them of the humus that i'm
proves their mechanical texture, their
MISUNDERSTANDING capacity and thelr
warmth.
It is true that there are in the South
and in all other sections of the country,
lands that were originally pool
which cannot be made permanently
fertile, but must be continually aided
by manure or fertilizers. These are
the sandy barren soils where there was
originally but small store OF plant
food, and where the plant food added
in fertilizers is rapidly oxydlzed and
leached down because of the loose me-
chanical condition of the sand and the
absence of food-retaining clay. Or
such lands fertilizers act quickly on the
crops, and their warmth makes them
available for early garden crops, but the
plant food is soon lost and must be con
tinaully renewed. But it does not fol
low that sandy soil that was original
ly poor cannot be made permanently
fertile if just below the sandy surface
soil there is retentive clay subsoil tina
can be reached by the plow to anchor
ate the. surface, or even when out o
reach of the plow to serve as an arrest
inc force to retain moisture and plan