262 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY—SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 
maximum amount of the winter rainfall for the use of growing 
crops. Corn is usually planted between the middle of March and the 
first of April and is harvested late in August or early in September. 
There is no system of rotation in general practice in the county, 
and corn often follows corn on the same land for a number of years. 
The yield is better when corn follows sugar cane, cowpeas, velvet 
beans, or peanuts than when grown after cotton or when corn has 
occupied the same land for several successive years. 
Little or no attention is paid to seed selection, nor is any effort 
made to secure seed of better varieties. The ‘Trenching” of corn 
has caused considerable loss during recent years. This disease at¬ 
tacks the corn in an entire field or a part of the field and completely 
destroys the crop in a very short time. It usually appears in April, 
and is first noticed when the corn turns pale yellow and white and 
the leaves begin to wilt. In its more advanced stages the roots be¬ 
come black, and the plant dies very much as a cowpea or cotton 
plant affected with “wilt.” The disease is particularly prevalent 
over land of low fertility, and attacks crops on the well-drained 
sandy soils as well as upon the moister flatwoods types. 
The corn land is fertilized, largely with commercial fertilizers. 
The available stable manure is also used. The usual corn fertilizer 
contains 8 per cent of phosphoric acid, 2 to 2j4 per cent of nitrogen, 
and 2 to 3 per cent of potash. This mixture is applied at the rate of 
about 200 pounds per acre. Through the systematic rotation of 
crops, the incorporation of organic matter in the soil by plowing 
under green crops, and through deep plowing, some farmers have 
been able to reduce their fertilizer bill and at the same time secure 
larger yields. 
Corn yields range from 5 to 35 bushels per acre, depending 
largely upon the method of cultivation and the treatment of the soil. 
Fifteen bushels is about the average yield for all of the soil in the 
county. 
Next in importance to corn in acreage is cotton. Sea-island, or 
long-staple, cotton is produced exclusively, the climate being un- 
suited to the short-staple varieties. The 1910 census reports a total 
of 12,795 acres devoted to this crop, with a production of 2,998 bales 
in 1909. While the acreage of cotton has increased, the farmers 
are less dependent upon this crop as a sole means of support, there 
being other important cash crops, chief among which are straw¬ 
berries. Cotton is grown on practically all of the upland soils, but 
