SOIL SURVEY OF PITT COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA

SOILS SURVEYED BY EDWIN H. KARNOWSKI, J.B. NEWMAN, JAMES DUNN, AND J.A. MEADOWS, SOIL CONSERVATION SERVICE ¹

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, SOIL CONSERVATION SERVICE, IN COOPERATION WITH THE NORTH CAROLINA AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION


Figure 1 - Location of Pitt County in North Carolina

PITT COUNTY is on the Coastal Plain in the eastern part of North Carolina (fig1). It is bounded on the east by Beaufort County, on the northeast by Martin County, on the northwest by Edgecombe County, on the west by Wilson and Greene Counties, on the southwest by Lenoir County, and on the south by Craven County. The county has a total land area of 419,890 acres. In 1970 the population was 73,900. Greenville, in the approximate geographical center of the county, is the county seat.

The county is mostly rural, and farming is the main enterprise. A large part of the farm income is derived from the sale of tobacco. The rest is derived mainly from the sales of corn, soybeans, peanuts, cotton, cucumbers, forestry products, dairy products, poultry and poultry products, and livestock.

In 1969 about 153,220 acres was in field crops (11),² 24,692 acres was in pasture, and 216,400 acres was in woodland (10). In the same year, about 45 percent of the total number of farms was operated by tenant farmers.

About 85 percent of the land in the county is in privately owned farms. The only significant publicly owned lands are the two areas owned by the U.S. Information Agency, Voice of America, and the farm operated by the Pitt County Home.

The soils are nearly level to sloping. The nearly level soils are in the eastern and southeastern parts of the county. The more sloping ones are in the western part and along the southern side of the Tar River and its tributaries. All of the soils are acid. Base saturation is less than 35 percent. Natural fertility is mostly low or very low. Suitable amounts of lime and fertilizer are generally needed to increase the content of calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, and potassium. The content of organic matter is also mostly low or very low, except in some very wet soils, where water has retarded oxidation.


Notes:
1 LEROY HACKER and JAY SHIROZAKI, Soil Conservation Service, also contributed substantially to this survey.

2 Italic numbers in parentheses refer to Literature cited.

How this survey was made

General soil associations

1. Norfolk-Exum-Goldsboro association
2. Roanoke-Lakeland-Altavista association
3. Lynchburg-Rains-Goldsboro association
4. Lenoir-Bladen-Craven association
5. Coxville-Exum association
6. Bibb-Portsmouth association
7. Bladen-Byars association

Descriptions of the soils
 

Use and management of the soils

Use of soils for crops and pasture
    Capability grouping
    Management by capability units
    Estimated yields

Woodland uses of the soils
    Woodland resources
    Rating soils for woodland use
    Woodland suitability grouping of soils

Use of soils for wildlife
    Habitat elements
    Classes of wildlife

Engineering uses of the soils
    Engineering soil classification systems
    Engineering test data
    Estimated properties of soils
    Engineering interpretations

Formation and classification of the soils

Factors of soil formation
    Parent material
    Climate
    Plant and animal life
    Relief
    Time
Classification of the soils

General nature of the county

Physiography, relief, and drainage
Water supply
Climate
Industry and transportation
Cultural facilities
Farming

Literature cited

Glossary

Guide to mapping units

General Soil Map:Map in PDF

Index to Detailed Soil Map Sheets:Maps in PDF

(Typical file size for the maps is 400 Kbytes. The file for the text and tables is approximately 7.5Mbytes.)