THE GENESEE FARMER. 



437 



Pacific. It is easy to understand how the food oT 

 RHg&r cane may be taken from the mountain gorges 

 in New York and Founpylvauia, whore the Allegany 

 Rirer ri«es, and conveyed down the Ohio and Missls- 

 sipt, to be finally left in the loam and clay of Louis- 

 L<ina for Ine benefit of the sugar planters. Large 

 and universal as is the distributing power of moving 

 water, whether running on the surface of the earth 

 or below it, in the economy of Nature, it is capable 

 of indefinite extension by the knowledge and indus- 

 try of man Educated farmers should carefully in- 

 vestigate this matter, and weigh well the fact that it 

 is mainly the mineral and vegetable atoms brought 

 from distant hills and mountains that form the richest 

 allttvial bottoms; and that land equal to such bot- 

 toms in fertility may be formed by the aid of moving 

 water, even on the declivities of an upland farm. In 

 one sense, hills may be regarded as manure heaps, 

 although not often as soluble as one might wish; 

 yet, rain-water dissolves not a little of the substances 

 that improve any soil through which it may perco- 

 late, and on that account it is wise to irrigate, as far 

 as practicable, all uplands, jast p^ low ground is so 

 often, and advantageously, irrigated by Nature. lo 

 many places on side- hills, one may dig wells till wa- 

 ter is found, and then excavate the earth oa the 

 lower side, so that living springs are formed, whose 

 perennial flow will be alike useful for live stock, and 

 lor enriching many acres of land. Spring-water never 

 foils to abound in the fertilizing elements of the earth 

 and rocks through which it has passed. These ele- 

 Bientg are both organic »nd inorganic, as may be 

 seen by simply evaporating a gallon or so of the wa- 

 ter to dryness. Berzelius gave the names crenic 

 and apocrcnic to two acids of organic origin, because 

 he first found them in spring water. Krene is the 

 Greek name for spring. Uusually about half of the 

 dry residuum is combustible, like ulmic and humic 

 acids, and the other moiety incombustible earthy 

 saltA The character of these dissolved substances 

 depends on the composition of the clay, sand, stones 

 or rocks with which spring-water has been ia con- 

 tact Where the ground, and especially the rocks 

 below, are permeable to water, and abound in solu- 

 ble minerals, as is the case with the Onondaga Salt 

 Group, one would naturally expect to find many 

 mineral springs — and such is the fact in all quarters 

 of the world. In his work on the Minerology oj 

 fke State of JVew York, Dr. Bkoe describes a spring 

 in Byron, Genesee county, that issues from the Onon- 

 daga Salt Group, whose volume is large enough to 

 drive a small grist mill, the water of which is so 

 charged with sulphuric acid as to char vegetables 

 about the spring. Could the acid that issues from 

 the earth at this point in twenty-four houre be con- 

 veniently saturated with lime, it would yield daily 

 several tons of ffvpsum. Sulphur springs abound in 

 Western New York, and as the sulphur needs only a 

 chemical union with oxygen to form oil of vitriol, 

 one is at no loss to comprehend how plaster beds 

 grow in that limestone region. Dr. Hadley found 

 ten and a half grains of gypsum in a pint of the wa- 

 ter taken from one of the Avon springs. Epsom 

 and glauber salts, or the snlphatsg of magnesia and 

 soda, are only a little less abundant 



No other group of rocks of the same age in 

 America is t30 rich in the mineral food of plants as 

 the Onondaga Salt Group, if there h any of any age 

 thai, e^oala tue roc^ in question. Some of the more ! 



recent formations in Southern Georgia, Alabama aad 

 Florida, are richer in the phosphate of lime, and tte 

 remains of marine animals, which wili. form the mb- 

 ject of a separate article, in connection with the ag- 

 ricultaral resources of Upper Georgia. 



Heat, frost, electricity, light, atoiospherie air, wiih 

 its oxygen, carbonic acid, rain, enow and dess', an^ 

 the principal agents employed by Nature to augoieat 

 the frultfuluees of the earth, using at the saaae tiave, 

 and for the same purpose, both vegeta,blc and animal 

 Vitality, besides these, Ivature has ever at her ser- 

 vice gruvitatiov., which acts on masses of matter at 

 sensible distances, and ckemicaX ajinitif, whick opec- 

 ates on molecales, or atoms, at inseostble dietaaoes 

 from each other. In these faetj!, which are ia nO' re- 

 spect exaggerated, may be seen the ele meals of ag- 

 trouomy, geology, chemistry, meteorology, vegei^hh 

 and animal physiology, and natiirai philosophy. Na 

 intelligent mind cati devote a few years to the earnest 

 study of the primary sources and causes of fertility 

 ia land and not be conviaced that it ia dealing whk 

 a truly noble department of Science. It is imipossi- 

 ble in a short a.fticle, ha^itily wrtttee, like the preseat, 

 to do anything like justice to so larg-e and importaac 

 a theme. There are cheoiical changes wrought at 

 and near the surface of the ground, wiiich operate to 

 increase its friiitfulaess, that cannot be satisCictoriK' 

 explained without assuming much -as already knowk 

 by the reader, or giving a lengthened expositioa m 

 elementary principles, which, in either case, would 

 appear unprofitable to many. To the writer, it is 

 satisfactory to know that Science, iu its appiicatioa 

 to agriculture, as to all other industrial arts, is steadily 

 advancing, and that its ultimate triumph over al! op- 

 position is certain. If it cannot always create au 

 oasis in a desert, it can sometimes bring one to life 

 and fruitfulnesp, when about t j be lost forever, as the 

 following recent facts wili show: In a late number 

 of the Moniteur de C Armies, (a French military 

 journal,) there is an interesting account of the boring 

 of an Artesian well at Sidi Eached, in Algeria, by a 

 French engineer. The oasis that supported the vil- 

 lage had become nearly burnt up, and threatened to 

 disappear altogether, from the want of water. Some 

 knowledge of geology as applied to water-bearing 

 strata in connection with the subject of Artesian 

 wells, satisfied the engineer that an artificial fountaia 

 was attainable. Boring to the depth of only filty- 

 four metres, (about one hundred and fifty-seven feet,) 

 he perforated the impervious stratum, and reached 

 one filled with water, v.'Lich sent up above the sur- 

 face of the ground a tkousattd gallons pe-r minute. 

 The scene is thus described by an eye witness : 



" At the moment of the water's bursting forth, no 

 Arab was present, but the news quickly spread, and 

 in a few minutes the whole population of the village 

 was to the spot, and threw themselves upon the works 

 with sueh phrenzy that force was necessary to remove 

 them. Womea and ebildrea lay down in the stream, 

 as if they had never seen water before. The Sheik of 

 Sidi Rached could not repress his emotion ; he threw 

 himself on his knees, and wept for joy. The next day 

 the inhabitants of the neigliboring villages came to 

 thank the engineer, and bless the fountain, while ia 

 the evening there was a dance and a grand meny- 

 making, and this festival was kept up six days. Iu 

 the mean time, the ])eople went to work .<\nd con- 

 8truct«i{ a sluice to eonvey the vivifying ftreara to the 

 portion of the oasis which was dead from the w&b^ of 

 moisture. " 



