;: 



53O THE LABORATORY. [DEC. 



phuricacid; muriatic acid ; carbonate of potash ; solu- 

 tion of potash ; ammonia (caustic) ; muriate of am 

 monia (the common solution of sal ammoniac). 

 And small phials of the substances mentioned in the 

 Appendix, as tests for the examination of water. 



A few glass funnels ribbed, for filtrating with blot- 

 ting-paper. A hydrostatic balance. 



The whole of this apparatus may cost from ten t< 

 twenty pounds.' 



The most material point in examining a soil, and it 

 is a point in which the authors I have read have 

 committed great errors, is that of taking the speci- 

 men. I have always crossed a field in several direc- 

 tions, and taken about a tea spoonful in abundance 

 of places ; suppose an hundred, and thus taking 

 about a quart, reserved it for trials in glass phials 

 with ground stoppers. The under stratum should be 

 examined, to know if it be retentive, permeable, or 

 calcareous. 



All specimens may be kept a month before trying, 

 which will enable the farmer to compare various soils 

 with his own, under every similar circumstance. 



In trials with the gun-barrel, he may put one 

 ounce in it, and then fill up with pounded Hint boiled 

 in muria-tic acid, which yields no air or gas. 



The experiments should be double; in this dry, and 

 also in the humid way : upon the latter the following 

 passage from Dr. Fordycc's Elements of Agriculture, 

 will explain his method of analysis. 



" Take one thousand grains of the dry soil, apply 

 to it half an ounce of muriatic acid, and four ounces 

 of water in a glass, stone ware, or porcelain vessel, 



suffi- 



