266 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



fragrance. These facts, potent and indisputable, and so appar- 

 ently at variance with the teachings of science, that different 

 plants require different food for nourishment, and are adapted 

 to certain soils, is partially accounted for when we come to 

 consider, in the first place, the manner in which all of our soils 

 have been formed and deposited, and the surface changes they 

 have since undergone. Their origin was the solid rocks of the 

 globe, which by abrasion and disintegration, by the action of 

 heat and cold, of air and water, have been broken down and 

 ground to powder of a greater or less degree of fineness. Each 

 rock of distinct geological formation, produces a homogeneous 

 soil of its own essential characteristics, and fixed adaptation for 

 the growth of plants requiring support by its peculiar mineral 

 constituents. But the great water currents of different periods, 

 in the same and in opposite directions, and the constant wash- 

 ings and depositions of rains and springs, have often commin- 

 gled these distinct soils, and given them a heterogeneous 

 character ; and if instances are found where distinctive quality 

 is left, they are deposited at a distance from the place of their 

 nativity, except in a limited degree in the lime and sandstone 

 formations. Thus plants created for very different purposes, of 

 varied construction and characteristics, and requiring essentially 

 different food for their perfect development, find in the same 

 locality, and side by side, their peculiar mineral constituents, 

 and extract from the soil such and only such as that develop- 

 ment requires. Another cause of the heterogeneous character 

 of our plant growth, is the means nature has provided for its 

 planting and distribution. The wind, water currents, birds and 

 animals are God's planting husbandmen, and drop their seeds at 

 random, without seeking for the adaptation of the plant to the 

 soil. Seed thus planted germinates wherever there is sufficient 

 moisture to expand its covering, and the young plant seeks, 

 finds and appropriates its natural food. Other causes that 

 effect plant and soil adaptation, arc elevation and aspect. Soils 

 of the same geological origin, and which to the practical eye are 

 perfectly alike, are found to sustain a very different vegetable 

 growth at the base, and on the top or side of a mountain of 

 moderate elevation. And at the same elevation on opposite 

 sides, north and south, one produces oak, chestnut and maple, 

 the other white birch, hemlock and laurel. The most difficult 



