CHAPTER V. 
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ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY. 
Under this head will be treated such of the mineral substances in the 
State as have a practical or money value in arts and business. These 
will be best considered in several sections: 1, Soils; 2, Fertilizers ; 3, 
Metalliferous Ores ; 4, Minerals useful or marketable in the natural state ; 
5, Mineral Waters. 
SECTION I. SOILS. 
The soils of North Carolina divide themselves, on a mere inspection 
of the map, into three classes, Clayey, Sandy and Peaty, according to the 
predominance of one or another of three characterizing elements ; and 
these answer, at the same time, to geographical divisions ; the first class 
being prevalent in the middle and western sections ; the second, in the 
champaign or eastern ; and the third being characteristic of the swamp soils 
near the coast. Of course such a classification is very rude* and subject 
to much modification and qualification. In fact all these classes are found 
together in each section of the State ; and indefinite gradations between 
them. 
Probably a majority of the soils of the middle and western regions 
would come under the common designation of loam , which is about half 
clay and half sand (or gravel) ; while a larger part of the eastern soils 
would be classed as sandy loam , of which about two-thirds are sand. 
There are, however, in the eastern as well as the western counties, of al- 
luvial, clayey loams, (about two-thirds clay), especially in the wide river 
bottoms, and around the margins of the great swamps, — the white oak 
and beech flats. 
The soils of the “ sand hills ” of the eastern counties, already referred 
to as covered with marine and drift sands, are to be classed as sand, i. e., 
as consisting of above 90 per cent, of sand. 
It is hardly necessary to state that all soils are derived from the decom- 
position of rocks. Considered as to origin, soils may be classed as seden- 
tary and transported, (after Prof. Johnson) ; i. e., as derived by decom- 
position in situ, from the rocks on which they lie, or as composed of these 
