1846.] Taking a Journeyman. 269 



analyzed was found to contain from 85 to 90 per cent of vegeta- 

 ble matter. It differed from ordinary peat in being composed of 

 extremely fine vegetable matter. 



These experiments demonstrate the importance of vegetable 

 organic matter in a soil not simply as material for food, but as 

 the principal means by which water is both absorbed and retained 

 in soils. Water stands in the same relation to plants as blood to 

 animals. Unless the seed can get water, it never germinates; if 

 the plant cannot get water it dies. All our sands contain consi- 

 derable vegetable matter, and so long as it exists in them they 

 are capable of absorbing moisture from the atmosphere, and hence 

 the reason why they produce crops unexpectedly, is owing partly 

 t3 this cause. Organic matter in combination with sand has 

 greater ability to absorb than when in combination with clay. 

 It has the advantage of drying too more rapidly for the same 

 reason. 



The finer the organic matter in soils is, the better is the power 

 both of retention and absorption. This was manifested particu- 

 larly in the peaty matter referred to as being remarkably retentive 

 of water, which could be explained only on the ground of its ex- 

 treme fineness. 



The good eifects of frequent hoeing and stirring the soil, is 

 explained on the principle that a fresh quantity of vegetable mat- 

 ter in the soil is exposed directly to the atmosphere. The im- 

 portance of a thorough incorporation of organic matter with soil 

 is another fact of importance. The supply of vegetable and other 

 organic matter must be obtained from peat beds and muck swamps, 

 whose importance will be found to increase daily. 



TAKING A JOURNEYMAN. 



James Allen and John Watson were apprenticed at the same 

 time to a wheelwright who constructed such instruments of loco- 

 motion as were used in the village of Carlton and its vicinity. 



