44 



NORTH-CAROLINA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



soil on drying becomes hard and tough, requiring force to 

 break it, and yet when apparently perfectly dry holds eight 

 per cent of water. It is also sufficiently rich in lime, and 

 particularly in organic matter. The question to be solved by 

 analysis was whether these lands would become valuable by 

 drainage. We may be assured this is proved by the results 

 obtained by analysis. The expediency of drainage depends, 

 however, very much upon the cost of the undertaking, but if 

 the lands admit of drainage at the ordinary cost of such un 

 dertakings there is no doubt but that the soil would rank 

 among the most valuable in the State. 



25. The foregoing analysis furnish examples of soils, most 

 of which may be regarded as highly productive. In the 

 midst however of productive lands, there are very frequently 

 limited tracts which are really barren, so far as the cereals 

 are concerned. To the eye, or upon a mere cursory exam 

 ination, these tracts would be regarded as valuable as any 

 which lie adjacent to them ; yet experience would prove, in 

 an attempt to cultivate them, that they are worthless. Corn 

 takes root and grows a few weeks, when it begins to turn 

 yellow, and finally dries up, or lives on in a stinted condition. 



The cause of this unexpected termination is not well un 

 derstood. Some planters believe that the soil is lacking in 

 one or more of the elements of growth ; others, that there 

 is some substance of a poisonous quality in the soil. If either 

 of these suppositions or guesses were true, the fact might be 

 determined by submitting the soil to a careful analysis. 



But there are other causes which affect unfavorably the 

 growth of vegetables. It may be too tenacious, it may be 

 compact and prevent the access of air, (an element always 

 required,) or it may be so porous and open that the necessary 

 amount of moisture cannot be retained. In addition, there 

 fore, to the chemical composition of a soil which a plant may 

 require to insure its perfection, there may be an incompati 

 ble physical one, whose operation is equally effective in stint 

 ing its growth. We must not, therefore, regard barrenness 

 as always the result of the absence of fertilizing elements. 

 In investigating any particular case of infertility, it is neces- 



