185Y.] Geological Report in Relation to the Soils of Kentuchj 295 



had better give fifty cents a pound for your honey, and as to money 

 making, go west, and make ; or break, as many arc doing on a 

 more magnificent scale. And yet I would advise every man who 

 has five acres of ground, and who as before stated, is at all curious 

 to keep a few swarms of bees, an observing hive or two ; and some 

 years he will derive a rich material product in delicious sweets, and 

 by the material and immaterial products combined, be amply re- 

 warded for his labors. — Ed. 



GEOLOGICAL EEPORT IN RELATION TO THE SOILS OF 



KENTUCKY. 



SOIL OF THE PRAIRIES COMPARED WITH THE BLUE GRASS LIME- 

 STONE SOILS OP KENTUCKY. 



In our last number we made some extracts from Dr. Owens' Re- 

 port in relation to the soils of Kentucky, to which we added some 

 practical observations of a general character, with the view to en- 

 courage the adoption of a system of cultivation that would improve 

 rather than exhaust the soil, and promised in the present number to 

 say something of the comparative fertility of the soil of the West- 

 ern prairies with that of certain parts of Kentucky. 



For the sake of comparison, D. Robert Peter, the assistant of 

 Dr. Owen in the chemical department of the Geological survey of 

 Kentucky, made an analysis of an Illinois prairie soil, collected by 

 him in October, 1855, opposite Keokuk, a few miles back from the 

 Mississippi river, just from under the newly upturned original 

 prairie sod. This soil, we presume, compares in its general charac- 

 ter and constituents with that of a large portion of the West. The 

 following is the result of the analysis, with the accompanying re- 

 marks of Dr. Peter, and the concluding admonition of Dr. Owen : 

 Organic and volatile matter ---... 9050 

 Alumina -----.-..2 400 

 Oxide of iron -----...2 350 



Carbonate of lime •--.-.. 390 



Maunesia 



,526 



Phosphoric acid ---... . . j^S 



Sulphuric acid, not estimated ---... 



Potash 

 Soda 



,197 

 ,100 



Sand and insoluble silicates - - - - - - 84 470 



100,163 



