miscella:n^eous papers. 



SOILS AND THEIR COMPOSITION. 

 By Joel Richardson, Esq., Newport. 



[Read at Institutes at Wilton and Readfield.] 



Many centuries ago, when the light of what is now the noble 

 science of chemistry first began to dawn on the minds of the learned 

 men of that time they found that two or more substances unlike 

 each other would under certain circumstances unite and form another 

 substance entirel}' different from either of the original. They 

 began to believe if they could learn the right process they could 

 change the common metals into gold. And for many centuries 

 down to comparatively modern times, men have studied and toiled 

 to accomplish this object. While they were toiling in vain, in the 

 soil on which they trod the chemical agents of nature were changing 

 the elements of earth and air into golden harvests as much more 

 valuable to man than gold as food and clothing are more valuable 

 than glitter and show. To this soil I wish to call your attention. 



Nearly all the rock which forms the crust of the earth is covered 

 veith a loose material which we call soil. It varies in depth from a 

 mere film, sufficient to give root to mosses, to several hundred feet. 

 It is made up of decomposed rock and the remains of plants and 

 animals and insects which have lived and died in and on its surface. 

 To be capable of producing crops, the soil must contain all of the 

 elements which the crop requires except the organic elements fur- 

 nished by the air and water. It is only about fifty years since it 

 was known that mineral elements entered into the composition of 

 plants. It is now known that although the plant contains less 

 than ten per cent of mineral matter, and that soils contain from sixty 

 to ninety per cent, jet it often happens that some one or more of 

 the required elements is lacking in the soil, and that the lacking 

 elements must be supplied by the farmer. Of the enormous quantities 



