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To form a just idea of soils, it is necessary to 

 conceive different rocks decomposed, or ground into 

 parts and powder of different degrees of fineness; 

 some of their soluble parts dissolved by water, and 

 that water adhering to the mass, and the whole mixed 

 with larger or smaller quantities of the remains of ve- 

 getables and animals, in different stages of decay. 



It will be necessary to describe the processes by 

 which all the varieties of soils may be analysed. I 

 shall be minute in these particulars, and, I fear, tedi- 

 ous; but the philosophical farmer will, I trust, feel the 

 propriety of full details on this subject. 



The instruments required for the analysis of soils 

 are few, and but little expensive. They are a balance 

 capable of containing a quarter of a pound of com- 

 mon soil, and capable of turning when loaded, with 

 a grain; a set of weights from a quarter of a pound 

 Troy to a grain; a wire sieve, sufficiently coarse to ad- 

 mit a mustard seed through its apertures; an Argand 

 lamp and stand; some glass bottles; Hessian crucible; 

 porcelain, or queen's ware evaporating basons; a 

 Wedgewood pestle and mortar; some filtres made of 

 half a sheet of blotting paper, folded so as to contain a 

 pint of liquid, and greased at the edges; a bone knife, 

 and an apparatus for collecting and measuring aeriform 

 fluids. 



The chemical substances or reagents required 

 for separating the constituent parts of the soil, have, 

 for the most part, been mentioned before: they are 

 muriatic acid (spirit of salt) ^ sulphuric acid, pure vola- 

 tile alkali dissolved in water, solution of prussiate of 



