CALCAREOUS MANURES-THEORY. 39 



It is unnecessary to cite any particular trials of our poor soils, as it has 

 been stated, in the preceding chapter, that all are entirely destitute of calca- 

 reous earth— excluding the rare, but well marked exceptions of its great 

 excess, of which an example has been given in the soil marked 4, in the 

 foregoing examinations. 



Unless then I am mistaken in supposing that these facts are universally 

 true, the certain results of chemical analysis, as well as more extended ge- 

 neral observation, completely establish these general rules— viz. : 



1st. That all calcareous soils are naturally fertile and durable in a very 

 high degree — and, 



2d. That all soils naturally poor are entirely destitute of calcareous 

 earth. 



It then can scarcely be denied that calcareous earth must be the cause 

 of the fertility of the one class of soils, and that the want of it produces the 

 poverty of the other, dualities that always thus accompany each other 

 cannot be otherwise than cause and effect. If further proof is wanting, it 

 can be safely promised to be furnished when the practical application of 

 calcareous manures to poor soils will be treated of, and the effects stated. 



These deductions are then established as to all calcareous soils, and all 

 poor soils — which two classes comprise nine-tenths of all. This alone 

 would open a wide field for the practical exercise of the truths we have 

 reached. But still there remain strong objections and stubborn facts op- 

 posed to the complete proof and universal application of the proposition 

 now under consideration, and consequently to the theory which that pro- 

 position is intended to support. The whole difficulty will be apparent at 

 once when I now proceed to state that nearly all of our best soils, such as 

 are very little if at all inferior in value to the small portion of shelly lands, 

 are as destitute of calcareous earth {carbonate of lime) as the poorest. So 

 far as I have examined, this deficiency is no less general in the richest 

 alluvial lands of the upper country— and, what will be deemed by some as 

 incredible, by far the greater part of the rich limestone soils between the 

 Blue Ridge and Alleghany mountains are equally destitute of calcareous 

 earth. These facts were not named before, to avoid embarrassing the dis- 

 cussion of other points— nor can they now be explained, and reconciled 

 with my proposition, except through a circuitous and apparently digressive 

 course of reasoning. They have not been kept out of view, nor slurred 

 over, to weaken their force, and are now presented in all their strength. 

 These difficulties will be considered, and removed, in the following chapters. 



CHAPTER VI. 



CHEMICAL EXAMINATION OF RICH SOILS CONTAINING NO CALCAREOUS EARTH. 



Proposition 2— continued. 



Under common circumstances, when any disputant admits facts that 

 seem to contradict his own reasoning, such admission is deemed abundant 

 evidence of their existence. But though now placed exactly in this situa- 

 tion, the facts admitted by me are so opposed to all that scientific agricul- 

 turists have taught us to expect, that it is necessary for me to show the 

 grounds on which my admission rests. Few would have believed in the 

 absence of calcareous earth in all our poor soils, forming as they do the 



