FARMERS' REGISTER. 



519 



HEPOUT OS PROFKSSOK SIIKPARD S ANALY- 

 SIS OF Tllli SOILS OF KDISTO ISLAKD. 



" /Resolved, That tlie comniunication of PmfJ^s- 

 Eor Slu'pard tie referred to the Special Comtnitiee 

 oil Soils, u'illi instruciioii.« to re|)ort, liovv Car the 

 analytical iiiibraiation it discloses, a<rrees or coii- 

 flicls with the practice ol'the Planter.? oC the Island, 

 ae exhibited in the application oC their manures.'" 



The committee to whom was relerred the 

 above- resolution, beg leave to report, 



That the Ibllouinij table exhibits, in one view, 

 the viirious properties of the soils* subjected to 

 analysis. 



* Although the samples were taken from one plan- 

 tation, yet it is believed that they afford fair speci- 

 mens of the soils of the Island, except those which 



With rerrartl to tlie cotton crop, F" is the poorest 

 in prodcution; 11, the best. The f^irmer, whose 

 capacity for water is the least, is distinguished by 

 the smallest quantity oforgsnic matter ; the latter 

 contains comparatively a large amount of carbo- 

 nate of lime. Ttie II)llowing is the relative order 

 of the soils in reference to fertility: H, C, G, E, 

 D, F. Further inlijrniation, concerninor iherpies- 

 tion propounded by tl'e society, will be furnished 

 in the sequel of'these remark.?. 



The interesiinn; inquiry in relation to the food 

 ofplants, is still unanswered. The earliest theo- 

 ry on this subject, emanating too from practical 

 men, was in liwor of decomposed organic sub- 

 stances. Whilst one, skilled in the science of 

 vegetable physiology, pronouni-ed water, another 

 oil, and a third pulverized earth, as the great de- 

 sideratum. Dr. Priestley ii;sisted on phlogiston, 

 and Kirwan on charcoal, as the true aliment. The 

 elements of vegetables are few and very similar. 

 The most essential are oxygen, carbon and hy- 

 drogen. The various combination? of these ele- 

 men's make up the varieties of the vegetable king- 

 dom. In like manner, the general soil consists of 

 few elements; of which silex or sand, alumina of 

 clay, and lime, carbonic acid, nitric acid, sulphuric 

 acid, and iron, are the chief earths, acids and 

 minerals. These substances, which are united in 

 various degrees, jiroduce the numerous modifica- 

 tions that characterize soils po.^sessing the same 

 constituent principles. The a'mcsphere, it is well 

 known, is composed of the two gases, oxygen 

 and azotic or nitrogen. Whilst plants, which 

 derive nourishment, as well from the air by inha- 

 lation oftheir leaves, as from tlio earth by absorp- 

 tion, excrementitiously throw otF the oxygen^ 

 which is necessary to animal life, they render the 

 nitrogen fit for respirable air by decomposition : 

 thus contributing by a two-fold operation to the 

 perpetuation of every created thing with which 

 the earth abounds. Modern writers seem to con- 

 cur in the belief that, although plants need a va- 

 riety of soils, adapted to their constitutions, they 

 perhaps require no specific nourishment, each 

 species being endowed with the capacity of con- 

 verting food to the sustaining of life ; in other 

 words, that snb.^tances of every description, whe- 

 ther solid, fiuid or gaseous — that liirht, caloric, 

 gravitation, attraction — all were designed as ne- 

 cessary agents in the formation of'lhe great family 

 of vegetation. It is nevertheless true, that the pri- 

 mitive earths in their pure state, or when mixed 

 in proper portions, are barren ;* further, that the 

 living fibre is composed of what was originally 

 living fibres — and that in decomposed animal and 

 vegetable matter every constituentf is embraced 

 which theorists have successively maintained is 

 the food ofplants. Be this as it may, it is certain 

 that for any substance to constitute aliment it must 

 exist in a soluble state, to be reduced to which, 

 air and moisture are indispen-^^able. Hence, by 

 breaking up and frequently stirring the ground, 

 the great object of tillage is effected. But these 

 natural agents are alone incapable 0/' converting 



produce " blue cotton." A, B, I, K, were mud sam- 

 ples. 



* See experiments of Giobert. Loudon's En. ofGard. 



t "All animal substances are resolvable into hydro- 

 g:en, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, phosphorus and sulphur. 

 Dung, or the mixture of animal and vegetable malter, 

 contains all these." 



