144 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the soil was rich in potash already, or the addition of the 

 lime in the leached ashes has elaborated a sufficient amount 

 of potash from the other natural substances to feed the plant. 

 But without potash the plant could not grow : a certain 

 quantity was required ; and, if it was not in the soil, it must 

 have come from some other source. The soil may be the 

 source. 



Mr. Whitaker. Are there not in New England, and 

 particularly in Massachusetts, a large number of sandpits 

 which contain a large quantity of potash ? 



Professor Goessmann. Yes. " Sand " is also a name which 

 is applied to a great many things. If sand means merely 

 pulverized quartz, it is one thing : it cannot supply plant- 

 food. It may improve the physical condition of the soil, 

 make the soil pervious, but it cannot feed the plant. If your 

 sand is ground granite, — like the sand along the seashore in 

 Kingston and Marshfield, for instance, — such sand is a most 

 valuable constituent of the soil. That soil is far better than 

 the average soil in the State. It consists in the main of 

 crushed granite rock. It is felspar, a constituent in the 

 granite, which gives us the potash. Whenever this mineral 

 constituent is in the sand, of course that sand has a powerful 

 effect on plant-growth. But sand and sand are two things, — 

 in the one case, ground quartz ; in the other case, largely 

 ground felspar. The two differ widely from each other in 

 composition. If sand contains felspar, then it contains pot- 

 ash, — one of the most valuable constituents of the soil. 



Recess until two o'clock. 



Afteenoon Session. 



The meeting was called to order at two o'clock. 



The Chairman. We have with us this afternoon a gen- 

 tleman from Norfolk County, — an intelligent farmer, — who 

 has a very different farm from the one of which we had the 

 history this forenoon. He went on to that farm, and levelled 

 up the hollows, cut down the knolls, and made the desert 

 to bud and blossom as the rose ; and, besides all that, he 

 edits a paper. I take pleasure in introducing Mr. A. W. 

 Cheever, of " The New-England Farmer." 



