208 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



&quot; The subsoil may be viewed as representing the soil in its 

 natural condition, and, as such, is rich in every constituent essen 

 tial to fertility, with the exception of phosphoric acid, of which 

 substance scarcely a trace could be detected. All the iron in the 

 soil exists in the state of peroxide, so that the plants may appro 

 priate its constituents without injury. The presence of so much 

 common salt in the subsoil is only explicable on the supposition 

 that it has been washed by the rains from the upper to the lower 

 soil, for we find it absent, except as a trace from the surface soil. 

 The vicinity of the soil to the sea explains the origin of the 

 salt.&quot; 



&quot; The upper soil has obviously been improved by manure 

 containing phosphates, and perhaps also silicates. I regret 

 that no information on this point accompanied the letter from 

 the secretary of the Statham Farmer s Club. The soils, from 

 the presence of the alkalies and the alkaline earths, and of all the 

 proper acids in the subsoil, are admirably calculated to furnish 

 plants with their proper food.&quot; 



I give this account of the soil, upon which this extraordinary 

 crop was produced, from a gentleman truly eminent for his sci 

 ence, with feelings of no little discouragement, as showing, in a 

 case where the curiosity was most reasonable and intense to get 

 at the secret of this remarkable success, and where chemical 

 analysis seems to have done its best, that we are still in as much 

 darkness as ever. His conjecture how the ingredients were 

 probably mixed in the soil, as appears from the second part of 

 each table ; his supposition, in the absence of all information on 

 the subject, that phosphates, and perhaps silicates, may have been 

 supplied in the manure : the utter want of the phosphates in the 

 soil, deemed so essential to vegetation and to the growth of a grain 

 crop: and the impossibility, which I think every farmer must 

 feel, of deducing from the result any practical conclusion what 

 ever, are circumstances in the case which can scarcely escape 

 observation, and which I submit to the judgment of my readers 

 without comment. 



That, under any circumstances, we can command a crop, or 

 insure any given amount, need not be said; but the extraordinary 

 pains taken here in the preparation of the land and the culture 

 of the crop are followed with all the success which is to be 

 expected. I have a great many returns of 32 bushels and 



