AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMEN
of the ALABAMA POLYTECHNIC
T STATION
INSTITUTE
E. V. Smith, Director 
Auburn, Alabama
SPECIAL LEAFLET 
NOVEMBER 1954
Adoancing
SOIL and WATER CONSERVATION
THROUGH 
RESEARCH
2. V. SMITH, Dean, School 
of Agriculture and
Director, Agricultural E-xperiment 
Station of the
Alabama Polytechnic Institute
EARLY MAN considered 
soil, water, air,
and fire to be the basic 
elements of life.
Even in this atomic age, 
the essential na-
ture of these same factors 
continues to be
recognized. The disastrous 
effect of drought
during the past 3 years and 
the pauperiz-
ing effccts of severe wind and 
water erosion
in many parts of the world 
emphasize the
importance of soil and water 
conservation.
The early social organization in 
the rural
South and the development 
of a marketing
system for cotton that extended 
into almost
every community meant that 
Alabama's ag-
ricultural economy, like that of most 
other
states in the region, soon came 
to rest
largely on cotton as the principal cash 
crop.
Corn, on the other hand, was a subsistence
crop grown for feed for work 
stock and
family meat animals as well as 
food for
the farm family. In the light of these 
facts,
it is small wonder that many of 
the pub-
lished reports of this Agricultural 
Experi-
ment Station have dealt with cotton 
and
corn fertilizers, variety tests, and 
rotations.
From such reports, it might be 
con-
cluded that the early administrators 
and
research workers at this Station 
were un-
mindful of the need for research 
of the
type now known as soil and 
water con-
servation research. Nothing could 
be far-
ther from the fact. Although the 
term "soil
*Presented at a state-wide conference 
of
Soil Conservation Service field personnel 
in
Auburn, Alabama, Sept. 9, 1954.
and water conservation" may not have 
been
a part of their vocabulary, we have 
ample
evidence that the pioneers responsible 
for
our young Experiment Station 
were fully
cognizant of the importance of maintain-
ing and improving the productivity 
of the
soil. Only 2 years after the 
Legislature
provided for an experimental farm 
at Au-
burn in 1883, it created what we 
would
now call a substation. This was the 
Cane-
brake Experiment Station at 
Uniontown.
The function of this first "substation" 
was
the study of forage crops adapted 
to the
region; today we include such 
crops in
most programs dealing with soil 
and wa-
ter conservation. Furthermore, some of 
our
first publications dealt with experiments
with clovers and other close-growing 
crops
rather than cotton and corn.
The late Professor J. F. Duggar 
con-
ducted inoculation experiments 
on crimson
clover and other legumes in 
the mid-
1890's and is credited with having 
been
one of the first workers in the 
United
States to have experimented with 
"artificial
cultures." This was an important 
step in
the development of a research 
program
looking toward the conservation 
and im-
provement of our soil resources.
It is important to remember that 
the
early days of this Station were 
also the
early days of research in soils and 
mineral
nutrition. Hellriegel and Wilfarth 
had pub-
lished their classical paper on the 
nitrogen-
ous nutrition of legumes in 1888. 
With
such a background, the "Old Rotation"
was begun in 1896-a rotation that is said
to be the oldest in the United States in-
volving cotton. At first glance, it might
be concluded that this experiment's sole
objective was to study fertilizers for a ro-
tation of cotton and corn. Actually, it was
designed as a basic soil fertility experiment
in which the economic crops, cotton and
corn, were used as test crops and in which
the new fundamental knowledge about le-
gumes was employed. Symbiotic fixation of
nitrogen was not the only factor to be
taken into consideration in such an experi-
ment, as the investigators soon discovered.
On the plots in which cotton and vetch
were grown in a continuous within-the-
year rotation, the per-acre yield of seed
cotton fell from an 813-pound average for
the first 10-year period, 1896-1905, to a
575-pound average for the 4-year period
of 1920-23. During this first 24-year pe-
riod, the vetch in the rotation frequently
failed, and from the investigators' notes it
is evident that they attributed the failure
to such things as winter freezes, fall
droughts, and diseases.
In the interim, however, a great deal of
information on the mineral requirement of
legumes, particularly phosphate, was being
accumulated in experiments, such as the
Cullar's Rotation at Auburn and coopera-
tive experiments with farmers throughout
the State, both beginning about 1911.
When the late Dean M. J. Funchess be-
came head of the Department of Agron-
omy and Soils in 1920, he revised the "Old
Rotation" project to provide for more ade-
quate amounts of phosphate and later for
potash. A quotation from the record for
1921, "To increase the available phos-
phorus for the legumes and main crops,
400 pounds per acre of 16% superphos-
phate were applied to the west half of
each plot before seeding to vetch," is il-
lustrative of the revision. What were the
results? Simply that the legumes now grew
luxuriantly and the production of cotton
and corn increased accordingly. On the
plots producing cotton and vetch continu-
ously, the per-acre yield of seed cotton,
which had fallen from 813 pounds (1896-
1905) to 575 pounds (1920-1923), rose
to an average of 1,188 pounds for the next
4
-year period and has continued at about
that level. Reporting on this experiment
recently, the late Dr. Franklin L. Davis
wrote, "The yields produced on these plots
in 1944, the forty-ninth year of continuous
cotton, were 1,656 and 1,512 pounds of
seed cotton per acre, respectively. This
would indicate that the cotton as a crop
does not deplete the soil or run it down
excessively. The cultural practices of leav-
ing the land bare through thewinter and
of not preventing erosion are responsible
for the generally low fertility level of many
soils on which cotton is grown."
This experiment, begun as a basic soil
fertility study soon after the principle of
symbiotic fixation 
of nitrogen was discov-
ered and before the mineral requirements
of legumes were fully understood, had a
profound influence on the use of winter
legumes as soil-improving and soil-conserv-
ing plants. Who can contradict the con-
clusion that the results of this longtime
experiment have contributed to our knowl-
edge of the importance 'of soil conserva-
tion?
Agricultural engineering at Auburn ap-
parently grew out of recognition of the
need for erosion control. In 1919, the late
Director J. F. Duggar invited Professor M.
L. Nichols to join our staff to work on soil
erosion problems. One of his first recom-
mendations was that a farm level be pur-
chased for each county agent; the recom-
mendation was approved. Soon after join-
ing the staff, Professor Nichols cooperated
with R. Y. Bailey in studying the value of
kudzu as a filter crop. Both of these men
continued their interest in erosion control
problems during their residence at Auburn.
The agricultural engineering staff devel-
oped homemade terrace drags and worked
out systems of field layouts and terracing,
which culminated in a channel-type terrace
that long bore Professor Nichols' name. In
1929, the Agricultural Engineering De-
partment constructed the erosion plots,
consisting of a series of soil plots ranging
from 0' to 200 in slope. On these plots,
later augmented by the tilting plots, basic
studies on soil erosion were conducted.
Contributions to the early literature on
soil and water conservation, such as Bul-
letin 245, "Sheet Erosion Studies on Cecil
Clay," resulted from this research.
I have already mentioned that some of
our earliest publications dealt with close-
growing crops. A pasture fertilization ex-
periment was begun at Auburn in the mid-
1920's, and was the forerunner of our
State-wide pasture project. Much informa-
tion on sod culture resulted from this
work. The basic research reported 
in Bul-
letin 237, published July 1932, 
"Morpho-
logical, Greenhouse, and Chemical 
Studies
of Black Belt Soils of Alabama," 
by Scar-
seth and the field experiments 
conducted
by the late K. G. Baker at the 
Black Belt
Substation provided the 
background in-
formation for converting a broad 
soil re-
gion from a depressed, eroded, 
row-crop
economy to a progressive sod-crop, 
animal
economy.
Another major contribution 
came from
Fred Stewart's conclusion, substantiated 
by
research, that crimson clover could 
be
managed in such a way 
that early fall
growth would result in fall and 
winter
grazing. This work created widespread 
in-
terest in the use of winter grazing crops
and, irrespective of the forage 
species used,
resulted in many thousands of 
acres of
land being protected from 
winter erosion.
Beginning with establishment 
of the
first plots in the Auburn Plantations 
in
1927, results of our forestry research 
have
contributed greatly to the developing 
phil-
osophy that good forestry practice 
results
in financial return to the landowner 
and
contributes to the conservation 
of soil and
water resources. The pictorial 
record of
the healing effects of a pine plantation 
on
a gully in the Auburn forestry 
area during
the past 25 years has impressed 
people
with the relationship between forests 
and
soil conservation.
Many of you alumni had your laboratory
work in orchard management 
in the old
rock pile orchard some 25 to 30 
years ago
and will remember the use of 
sod in that
orchard. The value of sod culture 
in or-
chards was further studied in the 
old co-
operative hillculture project, and 
a more
comprehensive investigation is 
currently in
progress at the Chilton Area Horticulture
Substation near Clanton. In contrast 
to the
severely eroded, clean cultivated 
peach
orchards to be seen in several 
sections of
the South, the only clean culture 
in the
orchards at our horticulture substations 
is
found in experimental plots where 
the sev-
eral effects of clean and sod culture 
are
being studied.
Drought periods of the past 3 years 
have
dramatized the importance of 
water and
of water conservation. The farm 
pond re-
search at this station has brought 
world
recognition to Professor H. S. Swingle 
and
his associates. Although the 
principal ob-
jective of this project deals 
with pond
management for fish production, the by-
products of the research have 
contributed
to our knowledge of small watershed
yields, dam construction, evaporation 
losses
during droughts, and other factors 
of im-
portance to people interested 
in water con-
servation. Furthermore, personnel 
of the
former Division of Research, 
Soil Con-
servation Service, worked cooperatively
here and contributed to our knowledge 
in
the field of hydrology.
These few examples are illustrative 
of
the contributions that the research 
pro-
gram of this institution has made 
in the
field of soil and water conservation. 
Many
additional examples could be cited. 
In
this period of transition when 
the responsi-
bility for research in soil and water 
con-
servation that was formerly conducted 
by
a division of the Soil Conservation 
Service
has been assumed by the Agricultural 
Re-
search Service, I feel that a word 
of cau-
tion is in order. The caution 
is that we
not base our conclusion as to the 
amount
of soil and water conservation 
research
being conducted by a state experiment
station or a Federal agency on 
a simple
examination of project titles. 
Had project
titles been our only criterion, 
this talk
would have been much shorter 
since few
of the projects on which it is based had
the words "soil and water conservation" 
in
the titles. Two of our recent 
publications
illustrate the point. One is 
entitled, "Top
Soil and Pine Trees in Alabama's 
Pied-
mont" and the other, "Loss 
of Phosphorus
by Erosion." The results and 
conclusions
in both publications strongly 
support the
principle of soil conservation; 
the first is
a contribution from a project entitled 
"The
Establishment, Growth, and Yield 
of For-
est Plantations in Alabama," and 
the other
is from a project entitled "Factors 
Affecting
the Nature and Behavior of 
Native and
Added Phosphates in Soils."
Our agricultural engineers are aware 
of
the fact that mechanized farming 
makes
conservation farming even more 
essential,
but they also understand that 
machinery
gives the farmer tools and power 
to do a
job of conservation that he 
could not do
before. Our engineers are continuing 
to
study such mechanization aids 
to conserva-
tion as land smoothing and water 
disposal
systems including various types of 
terraces.
Our plant breeders are attempting 
to de-
velop improved strains of legumes 
and
grasses for conservation and forage 
pur-
poses. In order to take advantage of the
work of other plant breeders, our agrono-
mists have a broad screening program 
in
which they are testing new grasses 
and le-
gumes for adaptation to our conditions.
The plant breeders and animal and 
dairy
husbandmen are cooperating in an 
effort
to develop or find new plants that 
have
desirable nutritive as well as agronomic
characteristics.
Interest in irrigation is at a high point
in Alabama as a result of the drought.
Fortunately, our research workers did 
not
wait until the drought occurred to 
begin
some work in this field. Bulletin 
276,
"Value of Irrigation with Different Ferti-
lizer Treatments for Vegetable Crops," 
by
Ware and Johnson, was published in 
1950.
The demand for this bulletin was so great
that the supply was exhausted by 1952 and
a reprint was issued in February, 1953.
Our research in irrigation has not been
restricted to that dealing with horticultural
crops. We have had a project in the Ag-
ricultural Engineering Department for a
number of years. Some of you are famil-
iar with the work that members of the
agricultural engineering staff have done
in cooperation with Soil Conservation Serv-
ice and Agricultural Research Service per-
sonnel in conducting infiltration and per-
meability studies. We have a carefully
designed pasture irrigation experiment at
the Lower Coastal Plain Substation in
which agronomists, agricultural engineers,
and animal husbandmen are cooperating.
We have some work on irrigation of al-
falfa and other forage crops and on cotton
and corn. We are fortunate that the Soil
and Water Conservation Branch, Agricul-
tural Research Service, is cooperating with
us and have located the regional project
dealing with basic irrigation research in
Alabama. You may be interested that one
reason for this project being located in
Alabama is that the Soil Conservation
Service and this Station have entered into
an agreement making the old Soil Con-
servation Service Nursery at Thorsby, with
its large fixed irrigation system, available
to us. In addition to providing answers to
current questions, these studies are the
bases for development of an expanded re-
search program that will meet future needs
for irrigation information in the Southeast.
These are but examples of our research
program designed to extend our knowledge
in these fields of practical and economic
importance. I will close with two words
of caution. The first is that we must not
be complacent and lull ourselves with the
false belief that our research, education,
or action programs are perfect. The second
is that we must not become such avid ad-
vocates of the new that we substitute new
and as yet unproved practices or plants for
the old that have stood the test of research
and time.
FREE Bulletin or Report of Progress
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION
of the ALABAMA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
E. V. Smith, Director
Auburn, Alabama
Permit No. 1132-11 /54-9M
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