The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-05-03
FARM CONDITIONS IN PIEDMONT NORTH
CAROLINA.
Observations of Mr.. Thomas A. Game of the United
States Soil Survey on Farming In Catawba, Lincoln,
Burke, Caldwell, Alexander, and Idell Counties.

Burke, Caldwell, Alexander, and IrdeIl Counties.
The latest report of "Field Operations, Bureau
of Soils, United States Department Of Agricul-
ture," contains the report of the soil survey of
the Hickory Area" North Carolina-located
mostly in the Piedmont section of Western North
Carolina. The area is rectangular, containing
about 98S square miles, or 632,12S acres. 1t in
cludes parts of Catawba, Lincoln, Burke, Cald-
well, Alexander, and Iredell Counties. Conclud-
ing a lengthy and detailed account of the work of
the soil survey party, Mr.. Thomas "A. Caine gives
an interesting renview of agricultural conditions
and possibilities in the territory indicated. We
are confident that it will interest all Progressive
Farmer readers in this section, and as the book
is not for free distribution, we reprint herewith
Mr.. Gaines observations
SOIL PROBLEMS.
There are two chief soil problems before the
farmers of the Hickory area. One is particularly
limited to the area north of Catawba River, and
is the restoration of the fertility and productive
ness of many farms in that part of the area. The
present plight of these farms is due to the care
less and inefficient methods of cultivation, among
which may be enumerated the absence of a proper
system of rotation of crops, the constant cropping
to cotton, or wheat, shallow blowing, improper
or imperfect cultivation, inviting outlying, and
the leaving of the fields unprotected by vegeta-
ton during the winter season, thus accentuating
the loss of fertility by teaching and washing.
Much of the area in these farms can be re-
juvenated by a reversal of these methods, by
adding to the crop rotation one or more of the
legumes, and by increasing the number of live
stock carried on the farms and outstanding the
manure made by these animals in consuming the
forage afforded by the legumes, the corn fodder,
and the native grasses.
Deeper blowing, gradually letting the share cut
deeper year by year, and thus bringing only a lit
tie of the subsoil to the surface in any one year,
will be found of great value both in renewing the
fertility of the WORKOUT fields and in decreasing
the tendency of the soils to wash. The increasing
of the porosity of the soil by incorporating with
it the stubble of clover and cowpeas and coarse
stable manure also helps to prevent washing,
while at the same time adding needed organic
matter.
The other problem is the reclamation of the
bottom lands, many of which have become in re-
cent years too wet for cultivation, or, even whore
cultivable, subject to more frequent overflow than
formerly. This change has resulted from the silt
ing up of the channels. Some of the bottom
land along the Catawba River, the most valuable
soil for the production of corn and grass, is to-
day almost valueless because of a thick deposit
of barren white sand brought down by the food
of the spring of 1901.
The chief factors in the deterioration of the
bottoms are the rapid deforestation of immense
areas of mountain woodlands and the constant
shallow cultivation of the fields in cotton and
corn. The removal of surface soil by the heavy
rains is, as a result, greatly increased, and the
filing up of the stream channels and flooding of
the meadow areas follows. The proper tilling of