1836] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



661 



It will be gratifying to every as;riculturist who has de- 

 voted much inquiry to the nature and constitution of 

 soils, to find that an intelligent observer and practical 

 chemist, like Mr. Piddington, is engaged zealously in 

 that investigation. Though we do not agree with all 

 his particular conclusions here stated, the facts from 

 which he deduces them are valuable ; and such obser- 

 vations, continued, cannot fail to lead to correct and 

 instructive results. But though believing Mr. P. to be 

 mistaken, (and no wonder that he should be, when he is 

 compelled to reason from so few facts — ) we fully concur 

 in his ganeral opinion, that it is all-important to know 

 what are both the actual and the desirable c'lemical pro- 

 perties of soils, for the purpose of being enabled to suc- 

 ceed in producing, in perfection, most of the valuable 

 crops. " For some, lime in some form is important, as in 

 the case of w^heat — or absolutely necessary, as for clo- 

 ver — or necessary in great quantity, as for sainfoin. For 

 some of these, gypsum is also absolutely necessary 

 to produce a full crop, w'hile to most others, it is of no 

 service. Every valuable crop is made better, by the 

 soil having a moderate proportion of lime in some 

 form — because no soil can be a good one without. But 

 most crops, and cotton is one, contrary to Mr. Pidding- 

 ton's inferences, require but a small, if any, amount of 

 lime in the form of the carbonate, (or such as will' 

 show effervescence with acids,) though they will grow 

 well in highly calcareous soils. Thus cotton is the 

 great market crop on the excessively calcareous prairie 

 soils of Alabama, and also on the acid pine soils, (show- 

 ing not a trace of carbonate of lime,) of the Caro- 

 linas, and part of south-eastern Virginia. We have 

 in different parts of this work, stated our reasons for 

 believing that a highly calcareous soil is essential to 

 grape and wine culture — and have attributed the gene- 

 ral ill-success of that culture in America, to the fact, 

 that no vineyard here, has such soil. We al?o stated 

 the belief that calcareous soil is unsuitable to tobacco — 

 and that the superior flavor of American tobacco to 

 any made in Europe, is probably owing to this general 

 difference of composition in the soils of the two ^un- 

 tries. 



Mr. Piddington is an?cious to obtain, and requests 

 through Dr. Harlan, specimens of tobacco soils from 

 Virginia, and of cotton soils from South Carolina — such, 

 it may be presumed, as are most friendly to both these 

 crops. It is hoped, that some of the readers of the 

 Register, whose location and opportunities permit, will 

 comply with this request, and aid Mr. P.'s future inves- 

 tigations, by selecting and minutely describing the 

 specimens, and sending them to the care of Dr. Richard 

 Harlan, Philadelphia.] 



I preface, what I hare to saj- to the Society on 

 the soils placed on the fable with a i'ew remarks, 

 which I trust may be thoLijiht worth placiii"' on 

 record. My object in doinfr so, is again to impress 

 upon members, of what vital importance it is to 

 the advancement of tlie agricultural interests of 

 the country, and to the safety and success of every 

 agricuUural speculation, to procure samples of ail 

 Eoils from other countries in which valuable pro- 

 ducts grow. 



The same climate and soii are, we know, in a 



Vol. IV— 71 



greater or le-ss degree, tlie essential requisites for 

 obtaining the productions ot one country in ano- 

 ther; and for our present purpose, we may, per- 

 haps, say that plants Jinrf their food in the soil, and 

 are enabled to digest it by the climate. They do 

 digest we know, and this in the strictest sense of 

 the word. 



The- popular ideas of climate are vague enougi?, 

 but it may be roundly asserted, liiat scarcely one 

 who uses the word, knows what is really meant 

 by soil; or rather, wliat is really meant by "the 

 same soil." This arises from our vague notion 

 of the thing .itself. Tlie very words used to dis- 

 tinguish soils, express more rrcquently than any 

 thing else, their appearance and some of their 

 physical qualities; scarcely any their essential — 

 that is, their cliemical properties. We talk of 

 light and heavy, of. sandy and clayey, moist and 

 dry soils, which are all physical [a'operties, and 

 two clayey, or two sandy soils, may be actually as 

 different as lifrht and darkness fiom each olher! 

 The words ferrutriuous and calcareous are, it is 

 true, chemical term.s, but such vague ones that 

 they designate whole classes of soils, of which, 

 each sort is widely difierent from its neighbors. 

 The tea soils and the Arracan tobacco soils on the 

 table are both ji^.rruginous soils, but diflering as 

 widely as soils can do; for the iron in the one, is 

 a carbonate of iron, and in the other, the red oxide 

 of iron. 



Cotton. — Nothing then but a sample of the soil 

 and a correct analysis of it can assure the specu- 

 lator, that Avhile he is trying to rear any given 

 Ujreign product, he is not (misled by loose names) 

 absolutely blundcrinir in darkness, and attempting 

 an impossibility. I betjin with cotton as a mo.=t 

 prominent exnmple, though my proofs on the sub- 

 ject are not quite so full as I could wish; and I 

 shall surprise the society not a little, when I say, 

 that all the expensive efforts which have been 

 made hitherto to obtain good cotton, have proba- 

 bly failed ll'om this one cause — that we have been 

 at work on the wrong soil! How far, with the 

 American cottons, differences of climate may also 

 have operated, is not here the place to examine, 

 but vegetable productions do, to a n-roat extent, ac- 

 climate themselves; while it is probable, that 

 nothing can compensate to them the want of a 

 principal constituent of the soil. Now I have not 

 been able to ol)inin specimens of the American 

 cotton soils, but I have irood authority for stating 

 that the soil of the Sea Islands is wholly a calca- 

 reous sand — in other words, a li^rht chalky or shel- 

 ly-soil ; so that if may probably contain from 50 to 

 60 per cent, of calcareous matter, (lime generally 

 in the state of chalk,) and we have been attempt- 

 ing to grow this cotton on a soil which barely con- 

 tains a trace of it ! The soil of the Botanic Gar- 

 den, for instance, not containing more than li^ or 

 2 percent: Indeed, we ma}^ say general!}', that, 

 till we reach the /Cnnkur districts, none of the 

 soils of lower Bengal, out of the reach ofthe inun- 

 dations, contain any great portion of lime. I 

 showed some years ago,* that the inundations de- 

 posite lime, and that much of the fertilizing effect 

 thev produce is due to it. 



The American cotton is then, on account of dif- 

 ferences of climate, n case not strictly in point : 

 but the Bourbon cotton — grown both at Bourbon 



* Trans, of the Physical Class As. Fo. Vol. 1 . 



