8 Featherstonhaugh^s Geological Report. 



formation on this subject, what I would aim to accomplish is, 

 the putting into the hands of all who wish to cultivate geolo- 

 gical knowledge, an elementary work which should not be a 

 dry recapitulation of what was familiarly known before, but 

 a brief and intelligent view of the whole subject, explaining 

 the harmony which prevails in the structure of the earth's 

 surface, and how important a knowledge of its details are in 

 an economical point of view, making the whole, at every 

 step, subservient, as much as possible, to the illustration of 

 American geology. I must think that no individual can ac- 

 quire information of this kind, without experiencing a corre- 

 sponding enlargement of mind, that makes him a more useful 

 citizen and a happier man. The plainest farmer may thus be 

 made to understand how a knowledge of geology is useful to 

 agriculture. Very extensive districts consist of a recurrence 

 of decomposed shales, sandstones, and superficial soil pro- 

 duced from primary rocks, and are comparatively barren. 

 In such beds siliceous substances predominate, they having 

 but a small proportion of calcareous matter. A single band 

 of limestone sometimes effects a revolution in the value 

 of an extensive district of this character. We hear soils 

 called light, and heavy, and wet ; it is the mineral substance 

 of the geological beds which makes them so. Some families 

 of grain and plants fail upon peculiar soils ; this is owing to 

 the presence or absence of particular minerals, for even ani- 

 mals do not thrive where their food is not appropriate. Oc- 

 casionally a district or given area is too wet for crops that 

 would succeed if the land were drier ; a little knowledge of 

 geology would teach the farmer that the springy quality of his 

 land is owing to a bed clay that intercepts the rain, prevents 

 its percolating downwards, and forces it out at its surface. 

 Wherever he finds the clay he will find the same inconve- 

 nience, and knowing the extent of the cause, his ingenuity 

 will soon teach him to remove it by a proper course of drain- 

 age. I remember seeing, several years ago, the most barren 



