234 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



North and South Carolina, appointed him to that duty. At the same 

 time he gave a great deal of attention to agricultural chemistry, for 

 which he had acquired a great fondness in Liebig's laboratory, and to 

 this were added researches in geology and mineralogy. Among the 

 attractive features of the agricultural chemistry of his native State 

 that early drew the attention of Dr. Smith, were the unrivaled marls 

 on which the city of Charleston stands. These beds of fertilizers are 

 from 110 to 310 feet deep, and are in what geologists call the Tertiary 

 formation. They extend back more than 100 miles from Charleston. 

 Dr. Smith was one of the first to ascertain the scientific character of 

 this immense agricultural wealth. His paper on this subject, with the 

 correspondence of Prof. Bailey, the great microscopist of the Military 

 Academy of West Point, is one of much interest. He also pointed 

 out the large amount of phosphate of lime in these marls, from which 

 there are now obtained immense quantities of phosphatic nodules. 



During these scientific labors, Prof. Smith made a valuable and 

 thorough investigation into the meteorological conditions, character 

 of soils, and culture, affecting the growth of cotton. The report on 

 this subject was so valuable, that in 1846 President Buchanan ap- 

 pointed Prof. Smith, in response to a request of the Sultan of Turkey, 

 to teach the Turkish agriculturists the proper method for successful 

 management of cotton-culture in Asia Minor. On arriving in Turkey 

 Prof. Smith was chagrined to find that an associate in the commission 

 had induced the Turkish Government to undertake the culture of cot- 

 ton near Constantinople. Prof. Smith was unwilling to associate his 

 name with an enterprise which he felt satisfied would be a failure, 

 and the event fully justified his judgment. Prof. Smith was on the 

 eve of returning to America, when the Turkish Government tendered 

 him an independent appointment, that of mining engineer, with most 

 liberal provisions. This position he filled during four years, and he 

 performed his duties with such signal success, that the Turkish Gov- 

 ernment heaped upon him the decorations of the empire, and very 

 costly presents. The results of Prof. Smith's labors are a permanent 

 advantage to the empire, and it has received ever since 1846, and con- 

 tinues to receive, large revenues from his discoveries of emery, chrome, 

 ores, and coals, within the domain of Turkey. His papers on these 

 subjects, read before learned societies, and published in the principal 

 scientific journals of Europe and America, gave him a high position 

 among scientific men. His labors in Asia Minor on the subject of 

 emery, which he was the first to discover there, led to its discovery in 

 America ; and in Massachusetts and North Carolina a large industrial 

 product of emery is now carried on. In the scientific journals of this 

 country, the papers on emery and corundum recognize the successful 

 researches of Prof. Smith as having done almost every thing for these 

 commercial enterprises. These discoveries of emery in Asia Minor 

 destroyed the rapacious monopoly of the article at Naxos, in the 



