HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSJP. 



73 



"SOILS, THEIR ORIGIN, ETC." 



R. J. E. TAYLOR 



recently gave 

 a lecture on the 

 above subject be- 

 fore a crowded 

 gathering of the 

 Fr ami ingham 

 Farmers' Club, of 

 which the follow- 

 ing abstract ap- 

 peared in the 

 Ipswich papers : — 

 Dr. Taylor first 

 pointed out that 

 the thin veneers, 

 the surface soils 

 which covered the 

 habitable portions 

 of the globe, had 

 been for ages the 

 cradle of all life ; 

 remove these soils, he said, and terrestrial life 

 would be removed with them ; and it would not 

 be long before marine life would follow suit, and 

 general vital extinction would take place. The earth 

 would still roll on in space obedient to the same 

 astronomical laws as at present, but it would not be 

 the abode of life. Having thus shown their im- 

 portance to animal and vegetable life. Dr. Taylor 

 proceeded to explain 



THE FORMATION OF SOILS. 



There were, he said, several ways in which soil 

 could be produced. Of late years it had been recog- 

 nised that wind was both a former of soils and a dis- 

 tributor of them, and one English geologist had 

 recently shown that much of the surface soil of East 

 Angha was produced before the German Ocean was 

 formed, when England was a continental prolonga- 

 tion ; and that when the east winds blew, perhaps 

 more fiercely than they did now, they brought with 

 them dust to distribute over the surface of East 

 Anglia and help to form and enrich its surface soils. 

 In many parts of India the dust brought by the 

 No. 292. — April 1889. 



persistent winds from certain directions had accumu- 

 lated and formed soils and subsoils many feet in 

 thickness, which were known by the name of laterite. 

 In North China the accumulation of soil and sub- 

 soil by the action of the winds had in some places 

 amounted to nearly 1000 feet, and the banks of such 

 soils were deposited in ledges at different heights up 

 the mountain sides to 9000 feet above the sea level. 

 In Arabia and Africa there were vast accumulations 

 of moving sands. The sun's heat fell upon the rocks 

 and caused particles to decompose. These particles 

 dropped down and the wind blew them away, and in 

 that manner the sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa 

 were formed. These sands and soils were full of 

 nourishment, but there was no rainfall to dissolve 

 the mineral substances contained in them and render 

 them fit for vegetable hfe. On the other hand, in 

 rainy countries the rainfall became the means of 

 washing the dust of the lands to lower levels ; hence 

 the rich soil in our valleys which went by the name 

 of alluvial, from a Latin word, signifying to wash 

 down. 



THE SOIL CIRCULATOR. 



As a rule underneath the soils which were in culti- 

 vation there was a layer called the subsoil, but this 

 was not always the case. The most solid rocks were 

 reached by rain water percolating through the upper 

 surface, and were decomposed iji situ, so that even 

 in districts not affected by the changes he had referred 

 to, the solid rock beneath the surface soil was usually 

 in a state of decomposition. It was known to 

 geologists that the average rate of wear and tear of 

 the terrestrial surface of the globe was about one 

 foot in four thousand years. This meant a loss of 

 soil and what the soil contained, for it was carried 

 into the sea. Fortunately the decomposition of the 

 rocks beneath went on at the same rate, so that new 

 soils were constantly being formed — there was a 

 circulation of matter in the soil as there was in the 

 atmosphere. One of the greatest helpers in this 

 respect was the common earth-worm, which might 

 be called the soil circulator. Earth worms, however, 

 were almost confined to surface soils and soils rich 

 in organic matter— indeed, they were seldom fouud 



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