148 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



swers a verv good purpose, for this deepens the tillage, and allows the 

 rain to fall, and the melting snow to percolate and pass down through its 

 substance, and as the soil has a greater affinity for plant food than the 

 water, the plant food is given up to the soil and the water passes off. 

 But when the water cannot pass downward but is arrested by the subsoil, 

 it must be evaporated, and in this operation the gases that hold the plant 

 food must be evaporated also with the water. Thus our first study is to 

 put the soil in such a mechanical condition that it shall be a plant-food 

 holder. 



It is not so much in the geological features of the soil, as in its me- 

 chanical texture, as nearly all soils contain about eighty per cent, of 

 sand, whether formed from the azoic or carboniferous rocks. 



We talk less than formerly of tile-draining for the orchard, as ex- 

 perience has proved that the ridging up of the orchard rows in the di- 

 rection of the drainage, has accomplished the desired purpose. No 

 matter if we throw a foot of "earth along the rows and against the trees, 

 for we give the roots, which are the feeders, access to the air, moisture, 

 and a supply of the plant food that the great storehouse of nature, the 

 atmosphere, has sent down with the air, the rain, the gentle dews, and 

 the melting snow to minister to the plant. 



For these reasons we must have not only clean culture, but must 

 keep the surface in a finely comminuted condition to enable it to absorb 

 the rain, the dew, the melting snow, and the air, for if we exclude 

 these, we cut off the supply of plant food to the >foots of the plants, 

 and they cease to grow, and sicken and die. 



AVhen we come south, into this basin of Egypt where we now sit in 

 council, we meet another condition of soil. The "scalds" are an inci- 

 dent to the soil that has ])erple\ed the |)eoplc, and given them great dis- 

 couragement. It is but a thin stratum of clay four or five inches in 

 thickness, and near the surface, and seldom more than two feet below. 

 When this part of the State was covered with water, this thin layer of 

 clay was deposited over the bottom of the lake, and being very tenacious 

 is not permeable to moisture; hence it prevents the moisture below 

 from following the laws of capillary attraction, and thus subjects ihe 

 soil to suffer from drouth. The remedy for tiiis is Ule-draining or the 

 ridging bei'ore spoken of, and thus exposing this thin layer to the action 

 of frosts and other climatic changes, and in tiie end destroying its ad- 

 hesive properties. 



Along the Orand Chain where the soil is a modified /orss or derived 

 from the weathering down of the limestones and conglomerate rocks, it 

 needs the decaying roots of trees and plants lo separate its close texture, 

 and so prepare it for its (piola of atmosjjheric [)lant-food. 



Then again, climate has much to do in determining the crops. For 

 while tlie banks of the Mississippi, from St. "Caul to Villa Ridge, are 

 thick spread with the rich /ocss, it does not follow that the peach and the 

 sweet potatoes alike flourish along this ri\er-l)ell, as it traverses degree 

 after degree of latitude." 



Adjourned until seven o'clock this evening. 



