8 NORTH-OAKOLINA GEOLOGICAL SIJKVEY. 



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CHAPTEE I. 



Reference to a former report. The perfection of seed depends on the char- 

 acter of the soil. Nutrient matters necessary to animal life traced to the 

 soil. Essential elements of a good. The soil the reservoir of all these 

 elements. Character and classification of the soils in the Eastern coun- 

 ties. Importance of determining the smallest per centage of earthy 

 matter in a vegetable soil, which is compatible with a remunerating crop. 

 Some elements are more essential to form a good soil than others. The 

 organs of a plant are composed of different elements. The extreme of 

 certain kinds of soil. Remarks on the adaption of soils, together with 

 a statement of their composition. Soil of the open ground prairie in 

 Carteret county. Pocosin and swamp lands. Soils of Hyde county. 



5. In a former report, that of 1852, I deemed it neces- 

 sary to point out certain facts which have a direct bearing 

 upon the principles of agriculture, and which indeed appear 

 to constitute the foundation upon which it is based ; and as 

 the present report may fall into the hands of those who may 

 not have seriously reflected upon , those principles, I now pro- 

 pose to recapitulate them very briefly. 



Soils must contain a sufficiency of certain inorganic ele- 

 ments, otherwise no seed can be perfected. The elements 

 which support animal life may be traced to those which exist 

 in the vegetable, especially the seed and fruit. Hence, the 

 important products of life are derived from the soil, it being 

 possible to trace them back through the vegetable, and 

 the reverse, from the soil through the vegetable to the animal. 

 Those products of life then, which can be traced to no other 

 source than the soil, must be regarded as essential elements 

 of the soil, and as designed to sustain and support life. The 

 office of the vegetable tissue through which they pass to fit 

 them for sustaining animal life, are to simply modify, or to 

 form new combinations, and not new substances or elements. 



Those which I regard as essential to animal life, and all 

 of which exist in the soil, are, phosphorus, sulphur, potash, 

 soda, lime, magnesia, iron, silica, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen 



