DECEMBER MEETING. 305 



toni of the kettles. The quantity of tliis nuitcrial is so grout in the sap of the 

 nia[)le that it interferes materially witii the maimfaetnre of sugar. With a 

 soil thus formed tlie drainage is perfect ^vithout the aid of ditclics or tiles to 

 carry off the surface water; so perfect that tlie most rapid melting of the large 

 body of snov,' which accumulates every winter makes no perceptible wash from 

 the hills to the valleys, and the heaviest rainstorms seldom gully the cultivated 

 hillsides so as to damage growing crops. 



But rich as the soil is in the mineral ingredients necessary to the most favor- 

 able growth of plants, it is delicient in vegetable mould, although tons and 

 tons of vegetable matter have annually fallen with the leaves of the forest for 

 ages, and generation after generation of timber has fallen and rotted upon the 

 ground ; yet on the uplands from one to three inches of vegetable mould is all 

 that remains. This is a necessary result of such porous soils. Vegetable decay 

 is slow comlnstion — the union of the oxygen of the atmosphere with the carbon 

 of the woody fiber, which breaks down the structure and sets the earthy 

 elements free. When this combustion is perfect, as when we burn wood in 

 the open air, the carbon all passes into gas, and mingles with the air from whence 

 it came, and nothing but the ashes remain. But when we burn it in a closed 

 oven or pit, where the air is partially excluded, we have charcoal as the result; 

 a substance containing the principal element of vegetable mould ; or, rather, 

 vegetable mould is composed principally of that substance. In the swamps and 

 marshes, and around all the springs^ fallen vegetation becomes more or less 

 saturated with water, and remains so, whereby the air is partially excluded, and 

 the combustion which takes place is similar to that which takes ])lace in the 

 oven or coalpit, and a large quantity of carbonaceous matter remains ; so that 

 the muck in such places accumulates to a great depth. On the dry lands it is 

 different ; the complete drainage of the surface by the porous subsoil leaves 

 the air free to come in contact with every portion of the vegetable tissue, and 

 the combustion is so nearly complete that but little more than the substance 

 of the ash remains. The melting of the snows in the spring, and the 

 frequent rains of the summer, dissolve the gum and break down the cellular 

 walls which form the woody fiber, then passing off by drainage and evapora- 

 tion, gives the oxygen of the atmosphere free access to every carbonaceous 

 atom. The damper the soil, the greater the depth of mould. It is deeper 

 upon the north than upon the south-side hills — deeper in the valleys among the 

 hills than on the flat levels below them. The commonly received opinion that 

 the muck in our swamps is formed by the washings from adjacent hills — how- 

 ever true it may be in other regions — is incorrect as to this. The river fiats 

 down to the lower terrace are as destitute of mould as the hills. The rains and 

 the melting snows go into the ground, and find their way to the streams through 

 the living springs, which give a uniform volume to the rivers, varying but lit- 

 tle throughout the year. They seldom overflow their lower banks, and there- 

 fore spread no alluvium upon their flats. For this reason the river flats or 

 bottom levels are generally less fertile than the hills. A soil so rich in mineral 

 and earthy matters will never wear out, but with judicious farming will grow 

 better and better as the vegetable matter is increased by tillage. 



TOPOGRAPHY. 



Passing along Lake Michigan from Manistee to the mouth of Grand and 

 Little Traverse bays, one will observe a succession of bluffs, varying from three 

 hundred to five or six hundred feet in height. These blutTs are the lakcward 



39 



