152 Extracts from the Journals. [Jan., 



Science replies — You have lived for a few years on the native 

 richness of your soil, which was the accumulation of a thousand 

 yeais, from the decay of animals and vegetables. It is now most- 

 ly expended, and you must either adopt a scientific mode of tilling 

 your lands, remove to Iowa or Texas, or starve where you are. 

 The choice is placed before you. 



To the eye of- a scientific agriculturist, ten acres of peat bog is 

 a more valuable appendage to one of our northern farms than 

 would be the same number of acres of the richest Scioto bottoms. 

 He views these bogs as the means provided to enrich our impover- 

 ished uplands, and also foresees the day that they may furnish a 

 portion of the fuel needed in this cold climate. 



Art considers no act more meritorious than to convert them into 

 a potatoe field. 



It is painful to see the reckless haste that is made to destroy 

 their character and value by drainage and cultivation. 



We have known ^/^ to commit some serious blundei's in regard 

 to the mineralogical constitution of a soil where Science could see 

 her way clearly. Without stopping to notice the numerous ava- 

 ricious reveries that Art has been thrown into at the sight of 

 glistening mica, pyrites or blende, in the limited scope of our 

 acquaintance, we will refer to some of her errors under this head 

 that have a more intimate relation to agriculture. 



Some years since an excitement was raised in Trumbull county, 

 by a report that a supply of sulphate of lime (plaster of Paris) had 

 been found in Ellsworth. Splendid crystals for a cabinet were 

 sent to the eastern states, and a distinguished professor gave cor- 

 rect information in regard to their being plaster. Speculative 

 purchases of land were made in anticipation that abundant beds 

 of this valuable article would be discovered in the vicinity. No 

 such beds have, however, come to light. 



It appears that the earth in that township is mostly the detritus 

 of a broken down shale which contains some marine fossils, a 

 portion of lime and pyrites, as well as other ingredients. The 

 sulphur of the pyrites acted upon by the air is slowly converted 

 into sulphuric acid, which then combines with the lime and forms 

 the sulphate of lime or plaster. The process is constantly going 

 on at a slow rate, and beautiful crystals form in the beds of shale 

 and clay in the course of a few years, yet they afford no indication 

 that beds of plaster rock are in that vicinity. 



Again, Art concludes, that if she locate in a limestone forma- 

 tion she is sure to obtain good lands, abounding in lime, with a 

 soil naturally adapted to the production of wheat. In this she 

 may be mistaken. A few years since, several farmei's in the Mi- 

 ami Valley complained that their soil was not as good as they 

 expected, and did not yield as large crops of wheat as their neigh- 



