142 THE CHIEF SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL CROPS 



of vegetable matter. Well-drained alluvial soils along 

 streams and the rich black prairies of the middle West 

 are exactly suited to its requirements. No crop 

 responds more readily to the use of fertilizers and 

 improved methods of preparation and cultivation, and 

 on the other hand none will endure more abuse and 

 neglect without inviting absolute failure. 



Manuring. — Corn is a gross feeder and can 

 utilize manurial substances in almost any form. An 

 abundance of vegetable matter is a necessity for the 

 production of maximum crops. Of the three elements 

 usually bought in fertilizers, nitrogen is doubtless 

 the most important and it is the one that is usually 

 soonest exhausted under continued cropping. In the 

 South, however, with the system of cultivation de- 

 tailed below, this need never be purchased, but can 

 be grown on the ground by means of a leguminous 

 cover crop. This is one of the greatest advantages 

 coming from the longer growing season at the South. 

 The vigorous growth of the stalk depends very 

 largely on the presence of sufficient nitrogen. 



Phosphoric acid is, however, almost equally impor- 

 tant, for without it there will be a scanty production 

 of grain. This cannot be produced on the farm, but 

 must be purchased. In most parts of the South it 

 can be secured cheapest in the form of acid phosphate, 

 which is a ground phosphatic rock that has been 

 treated with sulphuric acid to make it more soluble. 

 The use of two hundred to three hundred pounds per 

 acre of this substance will prove profitable on nearly 

 all Southern corn lands that have been long in culti- 

 vation. On the pine lands it is indispensable from 



