STUDY OF SOILS. 459 



"bition, hoping his blunder will not forfeit his chance. This 

 suggests whether it would not be well worth while, not only to 

 withhold the premium on account of the omission, but to estab- 

 lish a separate prize for the best method and most accurate 

 specimen, in reporting the whole internal history and transac- 

 tions of the husbandry of the year. 



To this end, that he may be his own professor, scholar, sec- 

 retary, and reporter, let every farmer have as complete an 

 apparatus as he can afford, for conducting his examinations, 

 and nice admeasurements. Then let him enter his daily record, 

 with special respect for arithmetic. Let him keep a running 

 debt and credit account with every acre of his land, as much 

 as with his blacksmith and grocer, and post his books. This 

 will sharpen his wits, double his relish, and shed a steady intel- 

 lectual irradiation through his whole employment. 



STUDY OF SOILS. 

 From an Address before the Franklin Society, Oct. *I, 1853. 



BY DR. DANIEL LEE. 



Suppose I were to investigate a fair sample of the arated 

 soil of this county, and compare it with the soil in western 

 New York, which produces the largest crops grown in the 

 United States, what, think you, would be the essential differ- 

 ence between the two ? It may be presumptuous in me to 

 hazard an opinion on so important a question on general prin- 

 ciples, without a special examination of the land in this region. 

 But you have the old red sand stone here precisely as it is 

 found in the District of Columbia ; you have soft water here as 

 it is there ; and your land here as it is there, is better adapted 

 to corn than wheat. During the last six years I have had 

 ample opportunities for the critical study of the freestone and 

 granite soils of the South, as I had previously to investigate 

 the limestone soils of Western New York. 



When rain water passes through the latter, and appears in 

 wells and springs, it is uniformly charged with salts of lime 



