PREFACE. Vll 



an impossibility. That is my opinion. Not so with the 

 vegetable part of soil. I have endeavored in the fol- 

 lowing pages to set forth the high importance of deter- 

 mining the state and condition of this ; to show that 

 its presence in soil is of the utmost consequence, and 

 that, without it, full crops are not to be raised. This 

 is my conviction. 



One word respecting the title of my book. It is 

 my own. I have neither begged, borrowed, or stolen 

 it. That last has been done by an English Author, 

 who seems to be ashamed not of the act, but of the 

 name he has filched from me, and so eases his con- 

 science by apologizing for his "homely title." 



I shall not discredit my child by being ashamed of 

 his name. It was good at the christening, and I trust 

 will be thought respectable in manhood. 



S. L. D. 



Lowell, June Ist, 1855. 



