JOHN P. NORTON'S ADDRESS. 387 



faced by a remark or two, as to the points in which they differ 

 from fertile soils. 



If you take a very fertile soil, one that is capable of bearing 

 crops for a long period without the aid of manure, and subject 

 it to the processes of chemical analysis, you will always find 

 appreciable quantities of some ten or twelve substances. It 

 makes no difference from whence you bring such a soil, from 

 what part of the world it comes, it will invariably contain these 

 substances in greater or less quantity. Now if you take a soil 

 requiring frequent additions of manure to make it bear well, as 

 is the case on most of our farms, some of these substances are 

 either absent, or in smaller quantity. 



Going still farther and taking one of these light barren soils, 

 we there find many necessary substances quite absent, and 

 others so small in quantity as to be exhausted after a few crops 

 have been taken away. Such, is in few words the difference 

 between a fertile and a barren soil. Some are so barren, have 

 so many things wanting, that they cannot, except in very fa- 

 vorable situations, be cultivated at all with profit ; others have 

 such deficiencies as can readily be supplied when their nature 

 is known. 



I have already alluded to the tendency in these light soils to 

 dry up, and their incapacity to retain manure, as it constantly 

 tends to evaporate into the air or to leach away through the 

 porous sub-soil. A chief cause of these defects is the want of 

 a certain substance called alumina, one of those which is al- 

 ways present in a very fertile soil. It is, when pure, a white, 

 tasteless powder, and is that which gives the stiffness, tenacity 

 and other peculiar qualities to clay. The want of alumina is 

 not easily supplied, except in situations where clay can be pro- , 

 cured. When it can be had, a load is frequently of more value ) 

 than a load of manure, because it has not only an immediate / 

 effect, but also permanently improves the land. I know of one 

 farmer near Hartford, who has carted clay by his return teams 

 from that city, a distance of nearly nine miles. He assured me 

 that it paid him well, and that a full load of stiff clay was 

 worth upon his soil two loads of manure. In an address deliv- 

 ered the other day in Springfield to the Hampden County So- 



