1847.] Agriculture of JVew York. 139 



The following remarks are given in the work, on the power 

 ■which soils possess tor absorbing and retaining water. 



"• Our account of the New York soils would be incomplete, if we 

 passed over in silence these important qualities, which all soils 

 possess in a greater or less degree. The determination of this 

 power can be satisfactorily ascertained only by an extensive se- 

 ries of experiments carefully conducted, during the summer months, 

 or during that period of the year when vegetation is affected by 

 atmospheric changes. At any rate, experiments performed dur- 

 ing the winter, the early spring, or late in autumn, would not be 

 so satisfactory as during some portion of the period when vege- 

 tation is active and energetic. Experiments were commenced 

 and pursued for a week or more, but they w-ere suspended partly 

 for want of time at command, and partly from the fact, that all 

 the experiments and observations appeared to lead to and estab- 

 lish the result, that the powers in question were in the direct 

 ratio to the quantity of organic matter in the soil, though modi- 

 fied by its state of subdivision; for it appeared, that when the 

 subdivision was excessive, it absorbed and retained water in its 

 maximum degree; and when coarse, or but imperfectly divided, 

 its power of absorption and retention were proportionally dimin- 

 ished: still it was evident, that even when the organic matter 

 was coarse, those powers were much greater than when the soil 

 was deprived of matter from the vegetable kingdom. The facts 

 being established, that the power of absorption and retention are in 

 the ratio of the quantity of organic matter, modified by its state 

 or condition, it shows that soils may differ in those powers, even 

 when by analysis the amount of organic matter is nearly the 

 same. It becomes important, then, in a practical point of view, 

 to secure a proper degree of fineness in the vegetable and animal 

 matters which are added to soils, inasmuch as they will be much 

 more effectiye as fertilizers in a given period than if they were 

 coarse; for it is during the dry season, that vegetables require a 

 soil which is both absoiptive and retentive; that soil which is 

 capable of seizing atmospheric water, and holding it when the 

 atmosphere is heated, is one of the best constituted soils." 



The preceding observations, we believe, may be easily con- 

 firmed by other observers, if they will but turn their attention to 

 the varieties of loam, or any of the mixtures of sand and organic 

 matter, or organic matter and clay. 



Another fact, which is equally important with the foregoing, 

 and which was determined while engaged in these experiments, 

 is the order in which the different materials composing the soils 

 stand to each other, or the relations which they severally hold to 

 each other in their separate capacity. For example, it w^ 

 served that marls, or the finely divided calcareous compounds, are 



