Southeastern Soil Exhaustion

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Date: Wed, 29 May 1996
From: Terence Finnegan
Subject: southeastern soil exhaustion

[X-Post from H-ASEH]

I would appreciate any suggestions on soils and soil exhaustion in the southeast, from the antebellum period to the progressive era.

I have already referred to:
Avery O. Craven's _Soil Exhaustion as a Factor in the Agricultural History of Va and MD, 1606-1860_ (1926,1965)

Edward J. Russell's _Soil Conditions and Plant Growth_ (1921)

Hugh Hammond Bennett's _The Soils and Agriculture of the Southern States_ (1921)

Rupert Vance's _Human Geography of the South_ (1932)

Cyril G. Hopkin's _Soil Fertility and Permanent Agriculture_ (1910)

Most of the sources cover the antebellum period. I would appreciate any suggestions, broadening my scope of the Progressive Era. Thank you.

Dianne d. Glave
Department of African American Studies
Loyola Marymount University


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I've read Carville Earle's "Into the Abyss . . . Again: Technical Change and Destructive Occupance in the American Cotton Belt, 1870-1930," from Disalver's _The American Environment_. In terms of southeastern soil exhaustion, it seems to be the only thing on the progressive era that I have read. I will check Carville Earle's , "The Myth of the Southern Soil Miner: Macrohistory, Agricultural Innovation, and Environmental Change," for more on the Progressive Era (?).

If anything else on the progressive era comes to mind, please let me know. And thanks so much for the previous suggestions.

Dianne D. Glave
African American Studies Department
Loyola Marymount University

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From: Dianne Glave
Date: Fri, 24 May 1996

>Honestly, the southeast never had inherently fertile soils in the first place.

Funny thing about this comment: a number of people have e-mailed me directly in disagreement with you. see: vance and craven. see also: carville earle's ""into the abyss" from _the american environment_.

In addition, I am struggling with carville earle's argument in "into the abyss" from _the american environment_. He argues the worst soil exhaustion took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century rather than in the antebellum period. Only new deal agricultural efforts stemmed or reversed the damage of soil erosion.

I ask: do we let the plantation holders off the hook? do the likes of seaman s. knapp and the agricultural extension service (suggested using fertilzers, cover crops, horizontal plowing, and more) of the very first decade of the 20th century get any credit for stemming soil erosion? and if there was such a dramatic change (across the country and not just the southeast) why were we literally blown away by the dust bowl in the 1930s?

Respectfully Yours,

Dianne d. Glave
Department of African American Studies
Loyola Marymount University

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Date: Fri, 31 May 1996
From: Terence Finnegan
Subject: Re: southeastern soil exhaustion (4 responses)

Dear Diane Glave:

You might consult the US Department of Agriculture, Soil Survey Reports published annually beginning in the early 1900s by the GPO. These reports go into quite a bit of detail on select counties in all the states and provide extensive information on soil types and fertility. The earliest reports also contain interesting nuggets of social commentary. Like all such reports, they are uneven, and their value depends greatly on the investigator.

Best,

Steve Reich
Department of History
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL 60208


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One of the 1930s Dept of Agriculture handbooks, I think 1937, or 1938, is called Soil (or something with that in the title.) It has detailed discussions of soil types and conditions by specific areas, with detailed maps, and historic discussion. You might want to see if there is an earlier one as well. It should be easily available. I have it but mine is packed and in storage.

Cheryl Thurber

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Hi Dianne and others,

I have read with much interest your posts on H-South. I can't think of anything specific right now and all my books are packed away in preparation for a move back to Mississippi, but I would be interested to know what your larger topic is here. The only direct area of research experience I have is my MA thesis on the Civilian Conservation Corps in the South. This comes after your time frame, but much of what the CCC attempted to do (as I am certain you know) was in the area of soil conservation (thanks for the kudzu!).

As for the dust bowl, I have always been a little skeptical of the role of humans in environmental disaster. I have no doubt that poor soil management contributed to the loss of tons of topsoil, but we are talking about a combination of severe drought and high sustained winds here too.

I appreciate your posts so far. It would be really nice to see more southern environment threads on the list.

Andy Harper
426 W. Garfield
Bozeman, MT 59975
http://dana.ucc.nau.edu/~harper

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A friend of mine who is a prominent expert on these matters reacted as follows:

'"Soil Exhaustion" sounds more like a literary/political term rather than an agricultural or scientific one.

'"Tired" soils should be "rested" I suppose in some government program. This brings up the question as to whether some soils should be "retired." But then they don't just poop out and die! Maybe a little soil "Geritol" in the way of organic matter tilled in along with nutrients, etc.

'Need to be properly managed to avoid depletion of important factors in them; at least the top couple of feet of the soil. I'm sure that a lot of fields were depleted and eroded, but good management has no doubt brought many back too.'

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/

I also happened to remember this:

THAR'S MORE IN THE MAN THAN THAR IS IN THE LAND.

SIDNEY LANIER

MACON, GEORGIA, 1869.

I KNOWED a man, which he lived in Jones,
Which Jones is a county of red hills and stones,
And he lived pretty much by gittin' of loans,
And his mules was nuthin' but skin and bones,
And his hogs was flat as his corn-bread pones,
And he had 'bout a thousand acres o' land.

This man - which his name it was also Jones -
He swore that he'd leave them old red hills and stones,
Fur he couldn't make nuthin' but yallerish cotton,
And little o'
that, and his fences was rotten,
And what little corn he had,
hit was boughten
And dinged ef a livin' was in the land.

And the longer he swore the madder he got,
And he riz and he walked to the stable lot,
And he hollered to Tom to come thar and hitch
Fur to emigrate somewhat whar land was rich,
And to quit raisin' cock-burrs, thistles and sich,
And a wastin' ther time on the cussed land.

So him and Tom they hitched up the mules,
Pertestin' that folks was mighty big fools
That 'ud stay in Georgy ther lifetime out,
Jest scratchin' a livin' when all of 'em mought
Git places in Texas what cotton would sprout
By the time you could plant it in the land.

And he driv by a house whar a man named Brown
Was a livin', not fur from the edge o' town,
And he bantered Brown fur to buy his place,
And said that bein' as money was skace,
And bein' as sheriffs was hard to face,
Two dollars an acre would git the land.

They closed at a dollar and fifty cents,
And Jones he bought him a waggin and tents,
And loaded his corn, and his wimmin, and truck,
And moved to Texas, which it tuck
His entire pile, with the best of luck,
To git thar and git him a little land.

But Brown moved out on the old Jones' farm,
And he rolled up his breeches and bared his arm,
And he picked all the rocks from off'n the groun',
And he rooted it up and he plowed it down,
Then he sowed his corn and his wheat in the land.

Five years glid by, and Brown, one day
(Which he'd got so fat that he wouldn't weigh),
Was a settin' down, sorter lazily,
To the bulliest dinner you ever see,
When one o' the children jumped on his knee
And says, "Yan 's Jones, which you bought his land."

And thar was Jones, standin' out at the fence,
And he hadn't no waggin, nor mules, nor tents,
Fur he had left Texas afoot and cum
To Georgy to see if he couldn't git sum
Employment, and he was a lookin' as hum-
Ble as ef he had never owned any land.

But Brown he axed him in, and he sot
Him down to his vittles smokin' hot,
And when he had filled hisself and the floor
Brown looked at him sharp and riz and swore
That, "whether men's land was rich or poor
That was more in the
man than thar was in the
land."

Rgds.

David Canfil

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Date: Thu, 6 Jun 1996
From: Doug Deal
Subject: Re: southeastern soil exhaustion

The government report Cheryl Thurber mentions is probably C.F. Marbut, ATLAS OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE, Part III SOILS OF THE UNITED STATES (USDA, Bureau of Chemistry and Soils, 1935). Loads of soil survey maps and summary descriptions of soil types, including the "red and yellow soils" (not podzols, as an earlier post had it) predominating in the Southeast.

Doug Deal
History/SUNY-Oswego