64 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



composition as those rocks. The gneiss and tlie mica slate 

 which compose the hills that skirt this valley, contain a simple 

 mineral, called feldspar. This feldspar contains more potash 

 than wood ashes, Inishel for bushel. When the rock therefore 

 is decomposed and the potash set free, you have, in the soil that 

 is formed, an important element of fertility. Upon this soil 

 grow the grasses, forming a beautiful green turf and affording 

 fine pasturage. There, too, the dicotyledonous forest trees, the 

 chestnut, the sugar maple and the oak luxuriate, seeming to 

 live, sometimes, upon the solid rocks themselves, their little 

 radicles decomposing them and al)stracting the earthly elements 

 of their stems and leaves. There, too, grow the best apples 

 and peaches in the country. 



Through the midst of the valley there are, here and there, 

 ridges of sandstone which existed previous to the diluvial 

 period. Over these, the rushing waters swept the loose material 

 which found a resting place at lower levels. The soils derived 

 from the decomposition of these rocks are very valuable, and 

 though the early settlers passed by these and cultivated the 

 soils of the older rocks on the higher hills, they are now made 

 very productive. 



The fertility of the soil depends much upon the fineness to 

 which it is reduced, and the degree of chemical decomposition 

 its elements have undergone. Many of the diluvial plains, 

 therefore, strewed with fine sediment, are quite fertile, while 

 acres of land, stone and gravel, exist almost as destitute of 

 . organic matter as in the day when they were washed into their 

 present position. But even here, there is silica for the rye 

 stalks, and phosphate of lime for the kernel, and the least 

 organic matter will enable the germinating rye to attain such a 

 size that the roots will perform the decomposition for them- 

 selves. 



In the laboratory we form a soluble glass by mixing two parts 

 of potash with one of sand ; this soluble glass is a large ingre- 

 dient of the stalk, the leaf and the glume of the corn, or rye, or 

 grass. If, then, you plant a hill of corn upon the sand, and 

 throw a handful of ashes upon it, and let the heavens drop 

 their showers upon it, the roots will form the same glass, take 

 it into its circulation, and fix it in the growing stem. The pine 

 will flourish on these soils, but other trees, especially fruit trees, 



