CALCAREOUS MANURES— APPENDIX. 269 



corn up too luxuriantly or parch it, and so hurt the harvest, as the soil is 

 sufficiently fertile of itself Of equal goodness is the groLind in great part 

 of Siberia ; for example, on the Samara, on the Ufa in the country of the 

 Bashkirs, here and there in the Baraba, or the Barabinian steppe, also on the 

 Kama, whence a great quantity of corn is sent to the northern cornless 

 dwelling-places on the Dvina and Petshora. In like manner too in the 

 goveinment of Isetsk the soil generally consists of a black earth, to the 

 depth of an ell, consequently is proper for tillage, for meadow-land, and gar- 

 den gi ound. On the Oby near Barnaul, the black earth does not indeed go 

 very deep, but the snarly clay* that lies under it fertilizes it so much as to 

 make it, in some places, yield plentiful harvests, without manuring, for 

 twenty years successively.! At Krasnoyarsk, the fields will bear no manure 

 whatever, and yet continue fruitful for 10 or 15 years, if only suffered to 

 lie fallow every third year.f When the fertility ceases, the boor takes a fresh 

 piece from the steppe. On the Selenga, in the district of Selenghinsk, the 

 fields are hilly, and yet will bear no manure, as it is found on repeated trials 

 to spoil the corn." 5 



Speaking of the meadow land, the same author says — 



" Some steppes produce the best meadow-grass for provender, and yield 

 seed for making artificial meadows ; such as the esparcette, the alpine hedy. 

 sarium, clover, various kinds of artemisia, pulse, star-flower plants,*!! and fine 

 grasses that will bear any climate." 



There was good reason to believe that other plants mentioned as grow- 

 ing on these lands, as clover, vetches, &c. indicated a calcareous soil ; but 

 here is one mentioned, which alone is a positive and sufficient proof. 

 Esparcette, which is stated as one of the natural grasses of some of the 

 steppes, is the French name of sainfoin— and the fact of its growth, alone, 

 proves, as well as any chemical analysis could, that all the soils bearing it 

 are highly calcareous. Sainfoin not only delights in calcareous soils, but it 

 will scarcely live, and cannot thrive, on any other. It is a valuable grass 

 on chalk soils in England, which would be almost barren under grain 

 tillage; and it has never been raised in Virginia, and indeed will scarcely 

 produce a few feeble and scattering stalks on our best lands. The bald and 

 least productive prairies of our western country would be the proper place 

 for this grass. 



"All the meadows may be reduced to these four kinds: 1. Fine produc- 

 tive meads that have a good black, but somewhat moist soil: these yield the 

 greatest crops, of hay ; to them belong the luchten [overflowed land.] 2. 

 Dry, whereof the soil is fit for agriculture, and at times is so employed ; 

 they commonly yield a short but very nutritious hay. 3. Watery and 

 marshy; these do not produce the best, but give a very serviceable hay in 

 cases of scarcity in parching summers and dry places. 4. Fat steppes, 

 where the grass in some parts grows to the height of a man: they are sel- 

 dom mown." 



" Steppes. — This term does not properly denote low and watery places, or 

 morasses, but dry, elevated, extensive, and for the most part uninhabited 

 plains. Some of them being destitute of wood and water, are therefore 

 uninhabitable; others have shrubs growing on them, and are watered by 

 streams, at least have springs or wells, though they are void of inhabitants; 



* A dark-gray earth, about a foot deep, beneath which runs a layer of clay, and ia 

 held in many places to be fine arable land, 

 t Pallas, vol. ii. p. 641. 

 i Ibid. vol. iii. p. 6. 

 § Ibid. p. 168. 

 IF Ibid. vol. ii. p. 75, 



84 



