STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 399 



examine the walls of a railroad cut or a water-worn gully by the 

 road side, we shall see a confused mixture of gravel and sand, and 

 quite likely diminutive beds or lumps of clay or perhaps the bowl- 

 ders, gravel and grains of sand are packed into a matrix of clay. 

 Sometimes the material is assorted or stratified, a condition pro- 

 duced by the action of water and evidently during the retreat of the 

 glacier and while the water formed standing pools or lakes. These 

 stratified layers, especially of sand and gravel, are frequently 

 recognized in well digging by the sudden inflow of water. These 

 stratified or bedded layers are of great extent, often overlying the 

 Till, and are of much economic importance to other classes than 

 the agriculturist. The brick and pottery clay as well as the build- 

 ing sand of our state come from this source. In color this drift is 

 blue in the western part of the state and red in the eastern. Not 

 only the red color, but the scratches upon the rocks where these 

 are laid bare and are legibly preserved, as well as the general 

 trend of the hills themselves, point to the red sandstones and 

 conglomerates of the Lake Superior basin as the source of 

 much of the material of those red beds ; while the chains of hills 

 in the western part point as clearly to a northern source of the 

 material constituting their mass. Attention is called to this drift, 

 because it, with the decaying vegetable matter upon the ground, is 

 the source of the soils in all the drift covered parts of our state. 

 Since, as a general proposition, it may be stated that the mineral 

 constituents of all soils are derived from disintegrated rocks, it is 

 evident that soils may be found either where the rocks are decom- 

 posed, in situ, or where running water has deposited this material 

 which is the result of disintegration. In either case since there is 

 so little variation in the composition of vegetable mould, the soil 

 preserves the general characteristics of the rocks from which it is 

 derived, its fertility depending upon its depth, fineness, propor- 

 tion of mould, etc. A soil formed from a limestone will grow 

 luxuriant grass and form a paradise for flocks. A granitic 

 country is rather barren through the slow disintegration of the 

 rocks, except where the valleys hold the accumulations of long 

 periods for the use of the farmer or the gardener. Sandstone tracts 

 possess the natural conditions for fruit culture, and Ramsay* 

 emphasizes the fact that in Great Britain the fruit "orchards cele- 

 brated for cider and perry, lie for the most part on the structures 

 of the old and the new red sandstone;" and he adds : "What may 

 be the reason of this relation I do not know; but such is the fact, 

 * Fhysical Geology and Geography of Great Britain, p. 570. 



