90 M. De Gasparin on the Classification of Soils. 



tural improvement. It is only aftei* having destined a par- 

 ticular soil to an appropriate cultiu-e, that we can begin to 

 consider the labour and improvement it requires. These la- 

 bours and improvements will be without an object and a bear- 

 ing, if we are still ignorant of the plant to which they would 

 be useful. And, moreover, this investigation of the appro- 

 priation of soils to particular cultm*es, is connected with the 

 most natural classification, in a mineral ogical point of view ; 

 it breaks the smallest number of affinities, and consequently 

 renders the determination of soils more easy and more satis- 

 factory. 



The labour required for bringing the soil into good work- 

 ing condition, is also a matter of great importance ; for if the 

 appropriation of soils decides the phytological or botanical 

 part of the question as to cultivation, this other consideration 

 bears on the question of economy. It modifies the plan 

 of regulating the soils which might be determined on Irom the 

 first consideration taken by itself : it has also a very decided 

 influence upon the choice of the means to be employed in 

 overcoming the resistance upon the number and kind of ani- 

 mals, and upon the implements to be prociu-ed. But were 

 this circumstance taken as the primary basis of the classifica- 

 tion, we should then break all the natural affinities of soils ; 

 for all the mineralogical kinds are, in a greater or less degree, 

 susceptible of tenacity. Besides, it is evident that this greater 

 or less degree of facility in working soils, dissociated from 

 theu' capability of producing the most useful plants, is a qua- 

 lity of very little value ; that it is of no great moment, for 

 example, that we can easily labour a dry sand, and a rich marl 

 only with difficulty ; and that, in short, in the examination of 

 an estate, it is the character of the plants we inquire about, 

 before we calculate the expense of their production. 



As to improvements, and the necessary means of enriching 

 vegetation, they are ^\'ithout doubt the sign and consumma- 

 tion of good farming ; but their use is much less frequent 

 than it ought to be : most lands are cultivated Mdthout their 

 aid ; and we cannot, therefore, consider an exception which, 

 we trust, will soon cease to be one, in the light of a character 

 so general as the preceding. 



