FARMERS' R 



Vol. III. 



OCTOBER, 1835. 



No. 6. 



EDMUND RUFFIN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 



For the Fanners' Register. 



INQUIRY INTO THE CAUSES OF THE FORMA- 

 TION OF PRAIRIES, AND OF THE PECU- 

 LIAR CONSTITUTION OF SOIL WHICH FA- 

 VORS OR PREVENTS THE DESTRUCTION OF 

 THE GROWTH OF FORESTS. 



By Edmund Ruffin. 

 Introductory Remarks. 



The views which will be presented in the fol- 

 lowing pages are in part founded on others which 

 were maintained, and are considered as establish- 

 ed, in the Essay on Calcareous Manures— as, for 

 example, the doctrine oi" the existence and causes 

 oi" acid and still more of neutral soils — the chem- 

 ical power of calcareous earth to combine with 

 and to fix vegetable, or other putrescent matter, in 

 soils — and that a certain proportion of lime, in 

 some form, is essential to every productive soil, and 

 without which ingredient the land would be bar- 

 ren, and incapable of being enriched. As the rep- 

 etition here of the whole train of argument by 

 which those doctrines were sustained, would be 

 both unnecessary and improper, it may be permit- 

 ted merely to refer to the work named, tor these 

 positions, as premises established, and either 

 known, or accessible to every one who may feel 

 interest in the further extension and consideration 

 of the same general subject, which is here design- 

 ed. 



The necessity of making frequent reference to 

 a previous and avowed work, and also the having 

 elsewhere stated the general purport of this, will 

 prohibit the writer from presenting this continua- 

 tion anonymously; which otherwise would have 

 been preferable, both on account of the writer's 

 connection with the journal in which this will ap- 

 pear, and because the subject is one which will 

 derive no support from its origin, being a mat- 

 ter of general argument resting on facts and au- 

 thorities within the reach of every reader. But as 

 these circumstances made it necessary that the piece 

 should not be anonymous, for convenience, the or- 

 dinary form of a communication to the Farmers' 

 Register has been adopted. Whatever of oppo- 

 sition to editorial usage may appear in these re- 

 spects, it is hoped will be sufficiently accounted for, 

 and held excused, by the existing circumstances. 

 However confident the writer ma}- be of the main 

 positions which he will aim to establish in the fol- 

 lowing pages, he is sensible that he is venturing 

 upon a new field of investigation, which is as yet 

 unexplored — and indeed, almost untouched, except 

 by those who have paid no attention to the pro- 

 blem to be solved, or of others who, with better 

 lights of science, have fallen into gross and mani- 

 fest errors and mistakes. Under such circum- 

 stances, he cannot expect to avoid being misled 

 in many particulars; and he will be gratified at 

 having such errors corrected, and the subject fully 

 and properly treated by any other person possess- 

 ing better means for receiving information, and 

 pursuing this interesting subject of inquiry. 



Vol. Ill— 11 



General and erroneous opinions respecting the 

 growth or absence of trees on land in a state of 

 ■nature. 



There exists a wide-spread and strongly marked 

 difference between the lands of different regions 

 of the globe, in their being covered, or not, with 

 trees, before being subjected to cultivation. But 

 striking and strongly contrasted as are these differ- 

 ent aspects of parts of the earth's surface, and 

 much as each kind, when a novel scene, has 

 drawn forth expressions of wonder and admiration 

 irom travellers, the causes have not been sought 

 — indeed have scarcely attracted any attention. 

 Yet, even if considered as a mere matter of curi- 

 osity, not likely to bring to light any thing of prac- 

 tical use, there is scarcely one of nature's riddles 

 which would seem better calculated to interest 

 philosophical, and especially agricultural investi- 

 gators. These very different kinds of garb which 

 are worn by different regions of the earth, extend 

 over vast spaces, and of course are accompanied 

 with many remarkable changes both of climate 

 and' soil. It follows that there are not many per- 

 sons who have been accustomed to more than one 

 of these conditions of the face of the earth, and 

 those who have, been, were not of the class the 

 best qualified for investigating the. subject. The 

 first European settlers of North America were, by 

 the contrast to their native lands, the more forcibly 

 impressed by the magnificent forests of which 

 there seemed to be no end, and no change, ex- 

 cepf from the greater abundance of one luxuriant 

 and gigantic growth, to that of others. But this 

 universal cover of the land, so different from any 

 thing before known, was merely described with 

 admiration by Europeans — no cause was sought 

 for, or thought wanting; and they remained con- 

 tent with most erroneously attributing ihe luxu- 

 riant growth of trees to the fertility of the soil, 

 and the want of the labors of tillage.* 



*The words of the founder of Virginia, Capt. John 

 Smith, show that the noble growth of trees which 

 he and the other first European visiters found, gave 

 them a very high and certainly mistaken opinion of 

 the general fertility of Lower Virginia. "Within [the 

 capes of Virginia,] is a countrey that may have the 

 prerogative over the most pleasant places knovvne, for 

 large and pleasant navigable rivers: heaven and earth 

 never agreed better to frame a place for man's habita- 

 tion, were it fully manured and inhabited by industrious 

 people. Here are mountains, nils, plaines, valleyes, 

 rivers, and brookes, all running most pleasantly into a 

 faire bay, compassed, but for the mouth, with fruitful 



and delightsome land." "The vesture of the earth 



in most places doth manifestly proue the nature of the 

 soyl to be lusty and very rich. The colour of the 

 earth we found in diverse places, resembleth bole Jlr~ 

 moniac, terra a sigillata, and Lemnia, fullers earth, 

 marie, and divers and other such appearances. But 

 generally for the most part it is a blacke sandy mould, 

 and in some places a flat slimy clay, and in other 

 places a very barren gravell. But the best ground is 

 knowne by the vesture it beareth, as by the greatnesse 

 of trees, or abundance of weeds, Sec." "Virgi- 



