270 APPENDIX. 



which when moistened by rain is often of an inky blackness, 

 arrests, by its singularity, the eye of a stranger. 



" Whether the lack of clay in the Iowa and Wisconsin 

 soils will render them less durable, may be doubted. A 

 coarse sandy soil, the open pores of which suffer the rain to 

 percolate, carrying with it the nutritive geine from the surface, 

 requires an admixture of clay before it can become rich and 

 durable ; but the minute grained siliceous powder of this dis- 

 trict forms a species of soil entirely different from the above 

 — one which, without any such admixture, retains moisture 

 and geine in much perfection. 



" I believe it to be peculiarly adapted to the growth of the 

 sugar beet, which flourishes best in a loose fertile mould, and 

 which has of late become, in some European countries, an 

 important article of commerce. It is estimated that the 

 amount of beet sugar manufactured in France during the last 

 year was 100,000,000 pounds, and in Prussia and Germany 

 30,000,000 pounds. In the western part of Michigan, in as 

 northern a latitude, and in a climate similar to that of Wiscon- 

 sin, 240,000 pounds are reported by the papers of that state 

 (how accurately I know not) to have been manufactured du- 

 ring last season. 



" In concluding this brief notice of the soils of this district, 

 which I regret that time does not permit me to extend, I may 

 add, that I know of no country in the world, with similar 

 mineral resources, which can lay claim to a soil as fertile and 

 as well adapted to the essential purposes of agriculture." 



