8 Feather stonhaugWs Geological Report. 



formation on this subject, what I would aim to accomplish is&amp;gt; 

 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 



