8 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



rondacks disintegrate very rapidly, and form deposits on the side 

 of these mountains, which in the progress of time find their way 



to the valleys. 



In estimating the extent of granitic soil, and taking into account 



all the causes which act in distributing it over the state, I am led 



to adopt the opinion that it exists only in the immediate districts 



underlaid by the primary beds, in such quantity as to give th«j 



leading characters of a granitic soil. Diluvial action has undoubfe 



edly swept over these districts, and carried to the south some ot 



the soil which once rested upon the mountains and in their val| 



leys, and it has intermingled with other soils more or less ; stU 



the quantity bears but a small proportion to that derived from ser" 



mentary rocks. It is true that the materials of these rocks w< 



in many instances of granitic origin, and it is easy often to discj 



undecomposed felspar in them. Notwithstanding all this, I ( 



not ready to subscribe to the doctrine that all soils are essential' 



derived from one origin, and that a granitic one ; for most of tl: 



alkalies are lost in the course of the changes to which the hi 



particles are subjected. No one, who has observed the soi!^ ■ 



New-York, will hesitate to admit that the slate soils are qui 



different from those of the highland districts. 



The same remarks might be made in regard to the Southei 



highlands. Granitic soil must be confined to the fields underlai 



by primary rocks ; those which contain felspar and mica, ai" 



which furnish by decomposition one or more of the alkalies^ 



alkaline earths. Beside? felspar, there are other minerals wluj 



are agriculturally important ; thus, albite (another variety of t) 



felspar family), mica and hornblende, are each important mmeia 



to be known, or to be sought for in the rock, if we would lea 



approximately the composition of the soil of a primary distri. 



Thus in Gouverneur and the neighboring towns in St. Lawr^l 



county, a granite occurs, containing considerable albite. This su 



stance contains soda in the place of potash ; and hence we mig 



expect this element in granitic soils, especially as this kind of g< 



nite is rather disposed to disintegrate. f 



