268 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



small per cent, of organic matter, perfectly adapted to the 

 growth of the rye-plant, of easy adaptation to corn, and, to a 

 limited extent, to wheat ; a soil which forces plants to a rapid 

 growth and early perfection, but too porous, and not sufficiently 

 absorbent and retentive for grasses and other grains. On the 

 other hand, the prevailing or exclusive forest being hard-wood, 

 oak, walnut, elm, birch, maple, tell of a soil of finer and firmer 

 texture, with more of organic matter, and with great power to 

 absorb and retain. They indicate a capacity in the soil to nour- 

 ish and bring to perfection all the best grasses, wheat, oats and 

 barley, and of easy adaptation to corn, fruit and edible vege- 

 tables. Pure forests of hemlock or spruce are usually found in 

 their primitive state on soils of slate origin, or covering mica 

 slate, and are of less value for agricultural purposes than hard- 

 wood soils. They grow grass in greater abundance than pine 

 soils, and produce the coarser grains indifferently well, but for 

 the finer grasses and grains are not desirable. The practical 

 man, seeking a kindly soil for cultivation, would shun that whose 

 natural wood-growth is the cedar, as one coarse in texture, nearly 

 destitute of soluble plant-food, either mineral or organic, and on 

 which the limited plant-growth would hardly repay the labor of 

 cultivation. The same is true of many of our shrub-plants and 

 the red and white mosses, — indicating a soil composted, insol- 

 uble and lifeless, deficient in potash and lime, difficult of culti- 

 vation, and capable of producing only a scant growth of coarse 

 herbage. There are some plants, which, though of themselves 

 a nuisance to the farmer, are a sure indication of a fertile soil, 

 full of plant-food in a soluble state, and easy of cultivation. Of 

 this class are the thistle, the yellow dock, burdock and morn- 

 ing glory, telling of a soil highly organic, of remarkable fine- 

 ness, of great absorbing power, and all its mineral food in a 

 state to be easily taken up by the plants germinating upon it. 

 Some of the grasses, one of which is the beach-grass, seek 

 almost pure sands for their home, and by their rank growth 

 indicate a fertile soil, but they should be to the farmer a sign of 

 sterility for all ordinary purposes of cultivation. Plants potted, 

 and treated with several varieties of food, have the power of 

 indicating to the operator that best adapted to their develop- 

 ment, and the slightest change of materials placed in the soil, is 

 often the difference between total failure and perfect success. 



