Premium
Some Effects of Cultivation on the Piedmont Soils of Georgia
Author(s) -
Giddens Joel,
Garman W. H.
Publication year - 1942
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj1942.036159950006000c0082x
Subject(s) - supervisor , service (business) , citation , soil conservation , sociology , library science , graduate students , wish , agriculture , management , computer science , history , archaeology , business , marketing , economics , pedagogy , anthropology
SOME EFFECTS OF CULTIVATION ON THE PIEDMONT SOILS OF GEORGIA JOEL GIDDENS AND W. H. GARMAN PHYSICAL and chemical studies dealing with the effects of cultivation on soils have been conducted in numerous states. Workers in the following states have made one or more outstanding contributions: Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. The effects of tillage on many of the more or less dynamic physical and chemical properties of soils have been reported as a result of these investigations. Each report deals with one or more of the following: Water-stable aggregates ; infiltration rates; dispersion ratio; erosion ratio; volume weight; porosity; organic matter; humus; total nitrogen; organic carbon; C: N ratio; total sulfur; base exchange capacity; percentage base saturation; exchangeable calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus; moisture equivalent; wilting percentage ; and water-holding capacity. Almost without exception a pronounced effect has been recorded for all factors studied. To the writers' knowledge studies of the effect of cultivation on these or related factors have never been made on Piedmont soils. Throughout the history of agriculture in this country, the South has consistently had a greater proportion of its tillable land continuously devoted to cultivated crops than has any other section. Fortunately, the physical characteristics and topographic features of the Coastal Plain soils are such that excessive erosion has not resulted. In the Piedmont, however, these conditions are of such nature that soil losses have been excessive, in fact, greater than in any other agricultural section. It is obvious that this erosion has added to the serious effects which cultivation alone would have produced on the hundreds of thousands of acres of land in continuous cultivation. Any changes in the fundamental qualities of Piedmont soils, whether due to erosion or to cultivation, are of agricultural importance because of reduction in fertility. For this reason it was deemed desirable to study the changes which cultivation has brought about on certain soil properties associated with fertility. The present report deals with the initial investigations carried out on Piedmont soils. A detailed review of literature is dispensed with at this point, since Whiteside and Smith (9), Shaulis and Merkle (8), and Puhr and Olson (7) have published more or less complete reviews of available information, and none of the past studies have been concerned with the effects of cultivation under climatic and soils conditions similar to those of the Piedmont.