NOKTH-CAROLINA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



grain may ripen and acquire perfection, the leaves and stalks 

 also should be equally perfected. It can scarcely be doubted 

 that the grain itself depends for its full development upon the 

 perfection of the parts which precede it. They are the organs 

 which bring up the nutriment from the soil. Remove the 

 leaves at an early day, and the grain is destroyed, or never 

 comes to maturity ; but supply matter suitable for their in- 

 crease and perfection, and the grain is supplied also. It will 

 be observed that the different subordinate parts frequently 

 contain elements which are not found, except in very small 

 proportions, in the seed or grain ; yet, there is no doubt these 

 elements are quite essential to the perfection of the plant. 



18. Maize must be ranked among the most exhausting 

 crops ; and it is evident that poor soils will scarcely repay 

 the farmer for its cultivation. It is evident that, unlike other 

 cereals, there is little danger of using too much manure in its 

 cultivation, as it will bear almost any amount without injury, 

 provided all the elements of fertility exist in the magazine of 

 food provided for it. It is not liable to run to foilage, and 

 thereby fail to produce grain ; neither will it lodge or fall 

 down by its own excessive disproportion of organic to its in- 

 organic nutriment. 



While it must be admitted that maize is an exhausting crop, 

 it is equally clear and conclusive that it is one of the most 

 important and valuable, and hence it may be regarded as one 

 which pays the best. 



19. The foregoing remarks respecting the maize crop 

 have been made in consequence of the peculiar adaptation 

 of the soil of Hyde county to this cereal. It is the granary 

 of the South. It is true that the number of bushels per acre 

 which constitute the average crop is less than the number 

 frequently made on other kinds of soil. Thus a hundred 

 bushels of corn may be grown upon an acre, but the Hyde 

 county soils rarely exceed sixty bushels per acre, but from 

 fifty to sixty bushels are grown annually per acre for an in- 

 definite term of years, without the expense -of fertilizers, 

 while the heavy premium crops require a great expenditure 

 on them ; and these have to be repeated in order to keep the 



