396 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



the black soil of Tchornoizem, which Mr. Murchison informs 

 us constitutes the superficies of the arable lands comprised 

 between the 54th and 57th degrees of north latitude, along the 

 left, bank of the Volga as far as Tcheboksar, from Nijni to 

 Kasan, and stretching over a still more extensive district upon the 

 Asiatic side of the Ural Mountains. Mr. Murchison is of opinion 

 that this land is a submarine deposit formed by the accumulation 

 of sands rich in organic matters. The Tchornoizem is composed 

 of black particles, mixed with grains of sand ; it is the best soil 

 in Russia for wheat and pasturage ; a year or two of fallow will 

 suffice to restore it to its former fertility after it has been 

 exhausted by cropping ; it is never manured. 

 &quot; M. Payen found in this black and fertile soil, 



&quot; Organic matter, . 6.95 (containing 2.45 per cent, of azote.) 

 Silica, .... 71.56 

 Alumina, . . .11.40 

 Oxide of iron, . . 5.62 



Lime, 0.80 



Magnesia, . . . 1.22 

 Alkaline chlorides, 1.21 

 Phosphoric acid, . a trace. 

 Loss, 1.24 



100.00&quot; 



It is a little remarkable, judging from the analysis here given, 

 that not only is the quantity of lime extremely minute, but even 

 the phosphates, deemed so essential and indispensable to success, 

 are also absent. 



Such are the diversified results to which even the most scien 

 tific are led ; and they are well adapted to admonish us of the 

 imperfection of human knowledge, and the limitation of human 

 powers. In Lincolnshire, where some of the best farming in 

 England, as is universally admitted, is to be found, on a soil 

 where the whole substratum was chalk, or the carbonate of lime, 

 and where the mould or loam was not more than three or four 

 inches deep, I found the farmers manuring the land, from pits 

 dug in the field, with the very chalk by which the whole soil 

 was underlaid. Upon my proposing the question to an eminent 

 geological professor, then with me, much interested in agricul- 

 ure, why this was done, he replied that the lime in the surface 



