of Science to Agriculture. 141 



Lastly, a calcareous soil which contains more than 5 per cent, 

 of vegetable mould belongs to the sixth order, that of humous cal- 

 careous soils, of which there are three species — namely, the argil- 

 laceous, the loamy, and the sandy, characterised, as before, by 

 the larger or smaller proportion of clay present in them. 



The last class, that of humous soils, is distinguished, in the first 

 place, into three orders. The first consists of soluble mild humus 

 — that is, of that description of vegetable mould which is in a fit 

 condition to nourish the plants which grow in it ; the second, of 

 acid humus, namely, containing a free acid, which by its presence 

 is highly destructive to most kinds of vegetation. A third order 

 consists of fibrous vegetable matter, such as peat, which, though 

 not acid, is yet in a condition little fitted for imparting nourish- 

 ment to plants. These orders are again subdivided into argil- 

 laceous, loamy, and sandy, according to the proportion of clay 

 present in them ; and lastly distinguished into two species, the 

 one containing, the other destitute of calcareous matter. 



Such is the classification which has been proposed by a German 

 writer,* and which appears to me to have the merit of embracing 

 almost every variety of chemical composition found in nature 

 amongst soils ; nor shall I make any apology for entering into 

 this detailed explanation of it, as I conceive that, independently 

 of its use in suggesting to us in what ingredients a given soil may 

 be deficient, the advantage of being provided with a method of 

 accurately defining the quality of any piece of land which has 

 been made the subject of your experiments cannot but be appre- 

 ciated by every practical farmer. 



But now the question occurs — in what manner is the requisite 

 information to be obtained ? To a person altogether ignorant of 

 chemistry the only method that presents itself is to depend upon 

 the science of others, and to obtain an analysis of the soil from 

 some competent authority; but as this, if adopted frequently, 

 would prove both expensive and troublesome, it were very de- 

 sirable if that limited amount of chemical knowledge could be 

 diffused throughout the agricultural community which might 

 enable each individual to determine for himself, in a rude way, 

 the chemical constitution of the soils he cultivates. Certain easy 

 directions for this purpose are given by the Rev. Mr. Rham, in 

 the first Number of the Journal published by this Society ; and 

 I am persuaded that by following his instructions every farmer 

 would be enabled, if possessed of a slight elementary know- 

 ledge of chemistry, to ascertain, after a little practice, the con- 



" Schlibler, in his work entitled " Grundsatze der Agricultur-Chemie." 

 Leipsic, 1838. 



