tl6 On the Analysis of Sods. 



milk, — when that increased quantity is balanced against the 

 price of the salt, the dairy-man will (ind himself no aainer. 

 Though there docs not seem any thing in these experi- 

 ments, cither with hogs or cows, to encourage the practice 

 of e,"iving salt to animals with a view to increase their dis- 

 position to fatten, yet it would be temerity to affirm that 

 it is entirely useless. From the avidity with which most 

 if not all kinds of graminivorous animals, whether in a 

 sta'c of domestication or otherwise, are known to eat salt 

 whenever it eoines in their way, it is reasonable to conclude 

 that tlie propensity has not been implanted in them in vain. 

 But irom whatever cause its salutarv effects may be sup- 

 posed to proceed, whether (as was hinted at before) from 

 its promoting digestion and an increased secretion of fluids, 

 or from any other action it may have on the animal ceco- 

 nomy, it must be left to an experimenter more successful 

 than I have been, to ascertain. 



VI. Qn f he Analysis of SoiU, 6'? connected with their Ini' 

 prove ment. By HuMPHr.KY Daw, Esq. F R.S. Pro- 

 fe.isor of Chemistry to the Board of Agriculture and to 

 the Royal Institution^ . 



I. Utility of Investigation relating to the Analysis of Soils. 



JL HE methods of improving lands are immediately con- 

 nected with the knowledge of the chemical nature of soils, 

 and experiments on their composition appear capable of 

 luanv useful applications. 



The importance of this subject has been already felt by 

 some very able cultivators of science ; many useful facts 

 and observations with regard to it have been furnished by 

 Mr. Young ; it has been examined by Lord Duudonald, in 

 his treatise on the connexion of chemistry with agriculture, 

 and by Mr. Kirwan in his excellent essay on manures : but 

 the inquiry is still far from being exhausted, and new me- 

 thods of elucidating it are almost continually oflered, in 

 consequence of the rapid progress of chemical discovery. 



In the following pages I shall have the honour of laying 

 before the Board an account of those methods of analysing 

 soils which appear most precise and simple, and most likely 

 to be useful to the practical farmer : they are founded part- 

 Iv upon the labours of the gentlemen whose names have 



* From CummunucAions to the Eo.urd of ^ii;ricnlturc. 



been 



