The Story of the Soil; from the Basis of Absolute Science and Real LifeHopkins, Cyril G. (Cyril George)
Science
The Story of the Soil; from the Basis of Absolute Science and Real Life
Hopkins, Cyril G. (Cyril George)
Soils
"Yes, about that, and also one, or sometimes two, crops of small
grain. We usually have about seventy-five acres of corn, nearly a
hundred acres of small grain, and we cut hay from somewhat more than
hundred acres, thus leaving perhaps five hundred acres of pasture
land, besides about two hundred acres of timber land which has not
been cultivated for many years."
"Was the timber land that we see about here formerly cultivated?"
asked Percy.
"Oh, yes, nearly all of it was under cultivation when I was a boy,
although some had been allowed to go back to timber even before I
was born. On our own farm we have some timber land that, so far as I
have been able to learn, was never under cultivation; and the
character of the trees is different on that land. There you will
find original pine, but on the worn-out land the 'old-field' pine
are found. They are practically worthless, while the original pine
makes very valuable lumber.
"With our system of rotation we keep about all of our farm under
control; but the smaller farms were necessarily cropped more
continuously to support the family, and they became so unproductive
that many of them have been completely abandoned for agricultural
purposes; and even some of the large plantations were poorly
managed, one part having been cropped continuously until too poor to
pay for cropping, while the remainder was allowed to grow up in
scrub brush and 'old-field' pine; and, of course, the expense of
clearing such land is about as much as the net value of the crops
that could be grown until it again becomes too poor for cropping."
"Then the recleared lands are not as productive as when they were
first cleared from the virgin forest?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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