134 Agriculture of JVew York. [Sept., 



all those productions which spring spontaneously from the soil 

 under certain conditions must be analyzed also. If certain con- 

 ditions bring forth certain products, it is interesting to know what 

 those conditions are, that they may be turned to the best account. 

 There is another subject which requires farther examination. It 

 is the physical condition required for ce tain results. These un- 

 doubtedly exercise as much influence upon the perfection of an 

 organic being as the chemical, leaving out of view the fact that 

 the presence of certain elements are essential to a result. Take 

 the iinie out of the soil, and certain vegetables would not be grown 

 at all, it is essential to the perfection of a larger number than has 

 been suspected. 



The illustrations which accompany the volume are designed to 

 furnish pictorial representations of the geological, and in some 

 instances the agricultural features of the state. 



Two maps accompany the volume. The first is an enlargement 

 of the geological map, which appeared necessary to give a view 

 of the extent of the most important rocks, by which the relations 

 of the soils to the rocks would be more clearly given. The 

 smaller map gives the agricultural districts. Their area and ex- 

 tent is thus seen at once. Both of these maps furnish a great 

 range of means for the study of agricultural geology, and of agri- 

 culture in its simple form. The means of studying agriculture in 

 this mode, that is by the aid of maps, has not before existed in 

 this state. No attempt has been made in either of these maps to 

 represent clayey, sandy, or calcareous districts, or to distinguish 

 those soils which lithologically belong to the classes. It was im- 

 possible to do this, though it seemed desirable. The amount of 

 sandy and clayey soil in different parts of the state, must be left 

 to be solved by local societies, where many observers can be 

 engaged in this special work, and who by their ordinary travels 

 and intercourse can work it out without much sacrifice of time. 



In studying the soils of a particular section, it is highly im- 

 portant to be well acquainted with the law of their distribution. 

 For this reason, a chapter is devoted to the distribution of the soils. 

 That a rock is not covered with its own debris, except in a few 

 inst;.nces, is well known. It therefore is important to know in 

 what direction the former debris of a rock has been moved. Ob- 

 serv.'.lion establishes the fact that they have been moved from 

 north to south, and never from east to west. In one district, the 

 removal of soil has scarcely changed the relations of the soil to 

 the rock, inasmuch as the strike is in the direction in which the 

 soil has been moved. This is the case with the Taconic district. 

 In the counties situated upon the west side of the Hudson, how- 

 ever, this relation does not exist. Here the rocks strike to the 

 west or northwest, and hence the soil has been transferred from 



