1885.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



83 



land, and find it does not come well, though you 

 expend a great amount of care upon it. Perhaps 

 your neighbor is producing the same crop re- 

 muneratively, and on ground, to all appearances 

 similar to your own. You are greatly puzzled. 

 You apply various fertilizers, without any appreci- j 

 able effect. In your despair you resolve, as a 

 last resort, to send a sample of your soil to some 

 analyist. He detects just what is lacking, or what 

 is too abundant in your land for the special crop 

 you wish to raise. This is no fancy picture of mine. 

 I can give exactly such cases. On Brae's Island, 

 South Carolina, and on much of the South Atlan- 

 tic coast there was a black soil that would not ad- 

 vantageously produce cotton. This was a serious 

 matter, for cotton was styled " King." A sample 

 was forwarded to the Agricultural Department at 

 Washington for analysis. A qualitative examina- 

 tion was made, revealing the presence of proto- 

 sulphate of iron, very probably sufficient cause 

 for the poor cotton returns. A complete quantita- 

 tive analysis was made. The preliminary gave 

 moisture, 4.75; organic matter, 14.24; inorganic 

 matter, 81.01. Specific gravity, 1.14. Aqueous 

 extract of soil had an acid reaction. A stratum of 

 soil I foot deep, extending over one acre, would 

 contain 3,100,055 lbs; remembering the specific 

 gravity, 1.14. a cubic foot of it therefore weighed 

 71.42 lbs. The 3,100,055 lbs. of the soil was 

 found capable of yielding materials immediately 

 available for plant food as follows : Silicia, 1,331 

 lbs.; peroxide iron, .651; phosphoric acid, .440; 

 potash, 2,077; magnesia, 1,305; lime, 1.023; or- 

 ganic matter, 6.201. "The presence of proto- 

 sulphate iron, and probably free sulphuric acid," 

 rendered the soil unfit for cotton. The analysis 

 showed the necessity of removing the salt of iron 

 and of neutralizing the free sulphuric acid, which 

 could be effected by copious appUcations of hme. 

 It taught also the necessity for under-drainage. 

 I am thus minute, Mr. Editor, to show the keen ] 

 searchings of soil analysis. The sorghum plots at ' 

 the Department of Agriculture, Washington, were 

 found lacking in something necessary for the per- 

 fect production of sorghum. The soil revealed, 

 on analysis, a very small content of lime, and an 

 almost entire absence of chlorine. Its need was 

 sulphate of lime (land plaster or gypsum). I ask, 

 was not this soil analysis valuable ? Was it not 

 the very best thing to be done? Here was a por- 

 tion of the Department experimental farm set 

 apart for the cultivation of sorghum. It was found 

 to be ill adapted for the purpose. Was it to be 

 given up for that purpose ? Science wisely said, 



" No, not if tests can unfold the trouble." Again, 

 the dark, steel-gray limestone of New Jersey was 

 positively injurious to vegetation. What was to 

 be done ? Leave the ground vacant ? That would 

 have been folly. Something was radically at 

 fault. Science again steps to the front and solves 

 the problem. Analysis showed its deleterious ef- 

 fects were due to the high percentage of magnesia. 

 The remedy was found. The influence of the 

 magnesia was to be overcome. Prof. Hilgard af- 

 firms that the power of analysis is almost illimita- 

 ble ; it stops almost at nothing. Soil analysis be- 

 gan in this country about the year 1S60. W. H. 

 Farquhar reports a signal triumph in 1867. A 

 quantity of soil from an old sedge field, long 

 thrown out from cultivation, very sterile, was ana- 

 lyzed, with an equal quantity of very rich soil. 

 The usual constituents, clay, silex, etc., were pre- 

 sent in both, also lime. But the phosphates were 

 almost entirely wanting in the poor soil, while pre- 

 sent fully in the rich. The remedy was at once 

 known. Bone was applied, and for nearly twenty 

 years good crops of wheat, corn, clover and timo- 

 thy were produced. Says Farquhar, " It appears 

 to me a matter of positive certainty, whatever 

 chemistry may have done or failed to do for agri- 

 culture in the past, that a wide field is open for it 

 in the future. Great improvements are yet to be 

 effected by its agency ; but, in order to realize 

 them, the chemist must become a practical farmer, 

 and the farmer be an intelligent chemist." With 

 your permission, Mr. Editor, I will continue the 

 subject. Lexington, Ky. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Davallia Fijiensis plumosa. — We give here 

 an illustration of a class of ferns known as the 

 hare's-foot, or the rabbit's-foot fern, from the thick 

 creeping rhizomes, which push over the surface, 

 often hanging over the sides, and from which 

 spring the fronds, as the folial organs in ferns are 

 called. It is an interesting illustration of the close 

 relationship between parts often wholly beneath 

 the ground, and the stems of plants or the trunks 

 of trees. If these rhizomes were to become erect 

 we should have a tree fern; and really there is no 

 other difference between a tree fern and this 

 Davallia except the erect stems are bent and lie 

 on the surface of the ground. In many ferns the 

 stems grow wholly under the ground, and then 

 they are what are known as the creeping-rooted 

 ferns. We may see the analogy between the 



