IBS'?.] Geological Report in Relation to the Soils of Kentuclcy 297 



Soda ,049 ,090 



Sand and insoluble silicales - a - - 80.754 87,686 

 Loss in (a), loss and sulp acid in (b) - . . ^647 ^197 



100,000 100,000 



The Franklin county soil is even rather richer in organic and 



volatile matter ; both are richer in argillaceous matter, the Franklin 



county soil is considerably richer in phosphoric acid and the Barren 



county soil is almost equal to it and contains the same amount of 



alkalies. 



If we compare the Illinois soil with the best Kentucky soils we 



find that there would require to be added to the Illinois soil, for each 



acre, to make it equal in the amount of fertilizer for only six inches 



in depth : 



107,236 pounds of ferruginous clay, 

 of limestone, 

 of phosphoric acid, 

 of unleached ashes, 

 of soda, or 

 of common salt. 



It is true that the Illinois soil contains 1.28 per cent, organic 

 matter, which would contribute to produce heavy crops for the first 

 few years, but the above inorganic constituents are the true elements 

 of permanent productiveness, and the Illinois soil, with 84.47 per 

 cent, of sand and insoluble silicates, must of necessity be far sooner 

 exhausted than the more retentive argilo-calcareous soil of the blue 

 grass regions of central Kentucky. 



The rich, black, fat, silicious prairie soils of the West are indeed 

 wonderfully productive at first, for the reason above stated, but they 

 never can have that permanent productiveness of the best argillo- 

 calcareous soils of Kentucky, cultivated with any degree of judg- 

 ment. 



Let not, then, the Kentucky farmer without due consideration, 

 leave the home of his nativity in the hopes of finding in the far 

 West, land more productive than his own ; let him rather seek to 

 gain an insight into the qualites of his soil and adopt a frugal 

 method of husbanding the strength of his new land and renovating 

 the consumed ingredients of his old. 



D. D. Owen, State Geologist. 



The comparison of these analyses should forever remove the er- 



