NORTH-CAROLINA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



u 



of its cultivation. If inorganic matter is added, it will make it 

 productive, and possibly valuable. But how little is required, 

 how much expense may be required to bring it to or put it in 

 a cultivable state, is a legitimate inquiry, and one which 

 may be productive of considerable profit. It is evident, 

 however, that in a country like this, where there are vast 

 areas of wild land to be subdued, that these lands under con- 

 sideration cannot come in competition with good soil at 

 government prices, unless it can be shown that the expense 

 of reclaiming them is comparatively small ; still, the question 

 sought to be determined is an interesting one, and I have at- 

 tempted its solution, the results of which will be given in the 

 subsequent pages. 



7. A secondary fact requires a passing notice. Whilo 

 all the elements enumerated are essential to a good soil, some 

 are more so than others. Thus, certain plants require potash, 

 while to others this element is not so essential, or it holds 

 only a subordinate place. In wheat it is very necessary, 

 while to clover it is less so, and in the latter lime seems to 

 take its place. As a general law the most expensive elements, 

 as potash and phosphoric acid, abound in the seed and fruit, 

 while lime is most usually found in the wood and bark or stem. 



Silex in the cereals is an essential element in the stem or 

 stalk. Its office is to give it strength and hardness. 



Each element, therefore, being destined for a particular 

 organ, performs or fulfils a certain office or function. 



These specializations w r e may regard as predetermined re- 

 sults, effected through the instrumentality of the cell force ; 

 but how, it is impossible to say ; how the salts or compounds 

 of phosphoric acid are carried up to form the seed and there 

 remain and accumulate, and how the silex is arrested and ac- 

 cumulates in the stem, it is impossible to say. 



We may be assured, however, that the machinery of a 

 plant will work right if it is fed with the necessary food. 

 Knowing, therefore, what a plant wants, it becomes the 

 special business of the farmer to supply it. The perfection 

 in agriculture will consist in a strict application of the doc- 

 trine of specialities, and this specialization will not be confined 



