386 Missotiri State Horticultiiral Society. 



soils, since they no longer occupy the positions in which they 

 originated, but have been washed or drifted by running water or 

 moving ice, and redeposited in new locadities. As in this process 

 of transportation across the country soils resulting from the 

 disintegration of many kinds of rock are brought together and 

 thoroughly mixed, drift soils are, as one would naturally infer, 

 much more complex in composition than those of purely sedentary 

 origin. They vary in fact almost indefinitely, and to them may be 

 referred the greater part of our deepest and most fertile soil. 



SOILS IS VARIOUS STATES. 



As already intimated, the majority of our soils are drift ; nev- 

 ertheless sedentary ones of greater or less area may be found in ev- 

 ery State. According to the celebrated geologist, Prof. Geikie, the 

 deep, rich soils of many of our Western prairies belong to this class. 

 Dr. White, in writing on the geology of Iowa, states that at the 

 mouth of the Redwood river there is a cliff of granite upwards of 

 100 feet in height that has become so thoroughly decompo.^ed from 

 top to bottom as to be readily crushed in the hand. This is there- 

 fore a sedentary soil and the upper portion is very fertile. The so- 

 called Erie shales underlying part of Ashtabula county, Ohio, de- 

 lompose into a sedentary soil consisting of stiff yellow clay which is 

 very fertile. The brown Triassic sandstones of Gonnecticuf give a 

 light porous soil, and Aroostook county, Maine, the most fertile 

 portion of the State, is underlain by slate and limestone from 

 wdieuce the soil originated. It is doubtful if this last is tiuly sed- 

 entary, but at all events the drift here, as m many other localities, 

 has been slight, and it is often possible to judge correctly of the na- 

 ture of the soil of any locality from a knowledge of the rocks un- 

 derlying it. To the class of sedentary soils belong, also, those large 

 deposits of moss and peat in our bogs and swamps. These are 

 especially abundant in European countries. About one-seventh of 

 all Ireland is thus covered, and one bog contains an area of :?38,500 

 acres, over which the jaeat averages 25 feet in depth. 



ORIGIlf OF PRAIEIE SOILS. 



A large proportion of the soils of Iowa are "drift/' those of 

 the northern part of the state having been brought from Minne- 

 sota. Geologists say, however, that the greater part of the Iowa 

 drift soils have resulted from the decomi^osition of rocks within 

 the state limits and the amount of drift has therefore been slight. 

 On the western part of the state the heavy drift soils were found 

 by the geologist, Dr. White, to be mixed to a considerable extent 



