CORN CULTURE IN NORTH CAROLINA. 



CORN SOILS OF THE STATE. 



Perhaps every farmer who has a field or a farm rich in organic and 

 mineral matter, and not subject to overflow or too retentive of moisture, 

 feels that he has a good corn soil, and so he has. It has been aptly and 

 wisely said that when it comes to growing corn there is "more in the 

 man than there is in the land." 



Nevertheless, there is not an experienced farmer in the State who does 

 not have his choice of soils for corn production. While any good 

 farmer can grow a fair crop of corn, even on the sandhill region of the 

 State, still, with the same effort, the same farmer can grow a much larger 

 crop of corn on the Toxaway loam, the Cecil clay, the i^orfolk fine 

 sandy loam, the Portsmouth fine sandy loam, or the black lands of Hyde 

 and Beaufort counties. 



THE BLACK LANDS. 



There are no better corn soils in the United States than are the black 

 fine sandy loam, muck, and peaty soils of Hyde, Beaufort, Washington, 

 and other of the coast counties. These deep, black, peaty lands have 

 been for thousands of years in process of formation from the inter- 

 mingling of decaying vegetable matter with the fertile leachings brought 

 down by the streams from the more elevated areas of the State, Not 

 only so, but in the prehistoric lagoonal areas, that now underlie these 

 peaty lands, swarmed myriads of fishes and Crustacea that left their 

 remains in the form of marl beds which now furnish lime for various 

 agricultural purposes throughout this section. Thousands of acres of 

 these black soils are already under cultivation and large drainage enter- 

 prises are yearly opening up thousands of additional acres for the grow- 

 ing of corn, soja beans, potatoes, etc. Here we have the highest average 

 corn yield in the State, which has made this section famous for its corn 

 crop. 



THE GRAY SOILS. 



Organic matter and well-drained land are prime requisites to success- 

 ful corn growing in North Carolina. As we proceed westward from 

 the eastern counties we find the soils growing more sandy and lighter 

 in color, due to the evident lack of vegetable matter. 



But one will be surprised to see the large crops of corn grown on this 

 relatively poor soil by the liberal use of cowpeas, crimson clover, vetch, 

 soja beans, etc., plowed under as green manure, supplemented by a 

 limited amount of commercial fertilizer. The former furnishes needed 

 organic matter which in itself supplies nitrogen and renders available 



