176 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Aug. 



Study the Soil. 



No young fanner should I'ail to study the na- 

 ture and properties of each element necessary to 

 form a fertile soil. To cherish a profound igno- 

 rance of the things that combine to make his 

 crops, is to court excessive manual toil, covet 

 poverty, and wed self degradation. No practi- 

 cal farmer i)retends that he can produce a single 

 plant, out of nothing, by dint of hard work. If 

 it really takes something to form a good crop of 

 grass, grain, or roots, and that something exists 

 in the soil, is it not obvious that its properties, 

 and abundance or scarcity, should be known to 

 every tiller of the earth 1 



If we analyze the earthy matter contained in 

 wheat straw, or in the stems of rye, timothy, or 

 corn, we shall find more than half of it, to be a 

 mineral called silica, (pure flint.) If we take a 

 handful of surface soil from any cultivated field, 

 and analyze that, it will also be found to contain 

 more than 50 per cent, of the same silicious ele- 

 ment. The proportion of silica in the stems of 

 cereal plants varies from 50 to 80 per cent, of 

 all the incombustible matter therein contained. 

 This is about the average range of the propor- 

 tion of silica in good soils. One of the best that 

 we have lately analyzed, that of Mr. Champion 

 of Rochester, gives the following result : 



Water of Absorption, 7.30 



Organic Matter, 7.4.5 



Silica, 69.10 



Alumina and Oxide of Iron, 8.80 



Carbonate of Lime, 5.00 ^ 



Magnesia, 1.80 



PutasJi and Soda, traces. 



Loss, _ 0.55 



100.00 

 By the above it will be seen that flint sand 

 forms a fraction over 69 parts in 100 of the soil. 

 It will also be seen that the capacity of this sam- 

 ple to hold moisture, at the ordinary heat of a 

 summei-'s sun, is great — giving off" more than 7 

 grains of water in 100 when thoroughly dried. 

 This water abounds in the proper food of culti- 

 vated plants ; for on treating the soil with pure 

 rain water, as it falls from the heavens, and evap- 

 orating it to dryness, 1.10 grains of organic and 

 mineral elements were obtained. Of this 0.60 

 was minerals, and 0.50 organic matter. A large 

 portion of ;he minerals was lime, which was pre- 

 cipitated by oxalate of ammonia. An apprecia- 

 ble amount of magnesia, and traces of potash were 

 found in the watery solution. This soil contains 

 an unusual quantity of Ime, yielding traces of 

 both the sulphate and phosphate of that alkaline 

 earth. 



The apj)]ication of lime will be of no sei;vice, 

 but the use of gypsum to add sulphur to the soil, 

 and bones to increase the phosphorus in the 

 same, will be advantageous. Of the two fertili- 

 zers, bones are more needed than gypsum. 



The analysis of Dea. C. Tennv's surface soil 

 gave ihe following result: 



Water of Absorption, 2.50 



Organic Matter, 4.40 



Silica, - 84.23 



Alumina and Oxide of Iron, 7.19 



Carbonate of Lime, - — 1.20 



Magnesia, - - - - 0.44 



Loss, - --- 0.04 



100.00 

 This is a good soil, but contains more silicious 

 sand, and only one-fourth as much lime and mag- 

 nesia as are found in the soil of Mr. Champion. 

 It has a smaller capacity for retaining moisture, 

 and less vegetable mold. 



One thousand grains of this specimen infused 

 in pure cold rain-water gave a fraction over two 

 grains of soluble matter, one-half of which was 

 organic, and the other incombustible. 



As this soil contains less soluble elements than 

 is desirable, the addition of wood ashes and com- 

 mon salt, in small and repeated doses, will be of 

 great service. We say " small and repeated 

 doses," because the 84.23 parts of flint sand in 

 100 of the soil, will permit a great waste by the 

 leaching of all fertilizers, if applied in large doses 

 at a time. We are decidedly in favor of feeding 

 cultivated plants as we do domestic animals — first 

 give them such food as they can assimilate ; and 

 secondly, let them have none to waste but enough 

 to form a good growth of bone, muscle and fat. 

 The ash in plants answers to the bone in ani- 

 mals ; the gluten, legumin, and cellular tissue 

 of the former, to the muscles, membranes, and 

 tendons of the latter ; and the starch and oil of 

 vegetables answers to animal fat. 



In our original investigations of the great ques- 

 tion : How much of a crop of wheat, corn, or 

 potatoes is formed of matter derived from the 

 substance of the soil ? we find, as the mean of 

 many experiments, that rain dissolves about equal 

 quantities of what are called organic and inorgan- 

 ic substances in the surface soil. As the solids 

 in a soil must be dissolved before they can enter 

 into the circulation of plants to nourish them, the 

 study of the action of rain water on any given 

 field is, obviously, quite important. Insoluble 

 vegetable or mineral substances can only ope- 

 rate mechanically in promoting or retarding the 

 growth of crops. To increase the solution of sil- 

 ica, which is nearly insoluble, and check the too 

 rapid solution of the very soluble salts of potash, 

 soda, magnesia, and lime, are the great desiderata 

 in scientific agriculture. On many soils, how- 

 ever, much more may be gained by hastening the 

 too tardy decay of vegetable substances. In nine 

 cases in ten, thorough draining will efl^ect this 

 object. Deep plowing greatly favors the decom- 

 position of organized matter by mixing it with 

 the alkaline minerals lower in the earth, and al- 

 lowing vegetable and mineral acids to become 

 neutralized. A deep, friable soil that will per- 

 mit rain-water with its ammonia, nitric and car- 

 bonic acids, derived from the atnn)S|>here, to pass 

 down by the roots of plants, themselves deep in 

 the mellow earth, and to ascend around said 



