By J.R. Sams, County Agent
Last week White Oak township was the center of attraction in the Polk County News. Yes, she is a red soil township. There is but little land except the red class and that of a good quality. White Oak, like Cooper Gap township, is washed to one side by Green River and the other edge perches on the high peaks up in the “Land of the skies.” From the foot of the mountain to the lower section of the township, the land is hilly and rather steep along the creeks and branches, and there is a lot of good bottom land along these creeks and branches. And all this bottom land was once valuable for the production of corn, potatoes, etc., but much of it is of little value under present management. The trouble is this, which can be easily corrected with different treatment.
The present system of cultivating these steep lands, year after year, causes such erosion by the heavy rains that come in Polk County that the soil and mc of the subsoil is carried down and deposited in the bottoms which fill the creek and branch runs, and cover the land so deep with the dead clay from the hillsides, that nothing will grow on the hills from whence the clay came, nor on the bottoms where deposited.
It seems so strange to me that otherwise sensible men will pursue such a destructive course. There is a remedy for all this, and the remedy is easy. The only trouble in the way is that to apply the remedy will require a change in the habit and manner of living among the people, and habits and customs of people in any community are hard and require a long time to change.
If our forefathers had caught a vision of beautiful fields of living green pastures and fat cattle browsing on their hills, all would have been better, but since they did not choose; but on the contrary chose to grow altogether cotton and other cultivated crops, we find conditions as they are. So the only remedy is to go back to where the evil started and correct this evil.
The soil must be rebuilt and as fast as rebuilt, sown to permanent pastures. This is the only policy that can ever reclaim the country. This will do it and do it rapidly and then it will stay built. When the hills of White Oak township are rebuilt and the bottoms reclaimed, and the farmers become interested in purebred cattle, hogs and sheep, then and not till then will the people understand what a delightful country they do have.
Perhaps the denizens of White Oak township would feel like crucifying me if I were to say that Cooper Gap and Greens Creek can beat them growing sweet potatoes, but they can. But on the other hand, White Oak is a great township for growing the clovers if they only knew it. All the farmers have to do to grow the clovers in old White Oak is to learn how, and to learn how is easy if they just wanted to. And I will say incidentally that White Oak township will never be what she ought to be until her farmers begin to grow the clovers, and other legume crops and sow the grasses on the rough and wet lands and use lime. Of course the township is so versatile in its productive power that it would take a book as big as an old style family Bible written in small type to tell the half of what she could do. Ye Saluda and Cooper Gap apple fellows, don’t grow ashy when I say White Oak township can produce just as fine apples and peaches, grapes, strawberries, etc., as any country elsewhere.
Mili Springs, the capital of the township, is the seat of the White Oak community club that is doing so much for the uplift of the township. They have already organized their fair for this fall and are laying plans for other projects that will be uplifting to the entire community. Taken all around, White Oak township is a great place to live and enjoy life as you go along.
From the front page of the Polk County News, June 24, 1921
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