THE GENESEE FARMER. 



45 



agriculturist to become acquainted witli the nature 

 and degree of fertility of each part of his land, it 

 will in most cases be convenient for hhn to acquire 

 this knowledge by shorter and more direct meth- 

 3ds." He adds : " I shall not point out the process 

 of an analysis with the most minute exactness ; this 

 would place it beyond the skill of the greater part 

 3f agriculturists to perform; and the precision of 

 the resiUts would be useless for the purpose which I 

 Have in view. I shall lunit mysehf to describing the 

 steps which ought to be t;xken for ascertaining the 

 nature of the principal substances, Avhether earthy, 

 saline, metallic, vegetable, or animal, which enter 

 into the composition of a soU ; while it is necessary 

 to insist only upon those which concur most power- 

 fully in rendering it fertile." 



He quotes as authorities, Davy, Beezelitts, 

 Bkandt, Eoukcroy and Vauquelix, Bergmann, 

 and others well known to the scientific world. In 

 the article on "The Composition of Arable Lands," 

 page 24, he says: "In order to know the earthy 

 composition of those soils which have been consid- 

 ered the most fertile in various chmates, I shall have 

 reconrse to the analyses of them by men worthy of 

 the utmost confidence." 



Bekgmaxx found that one of the most fertile soDs 

 in Sweden contained : 



Coarse silex 80 parts 



Silica 26 " 



Alumina " 14 " 



Carbonate of Ume 30 " 



100 



GiOBERT analyzed a portion of fertile soU from 

 the neighborhood of Turin, in which the principal 

 earths Avere in the following proportions : 



Silica from 77 to 79 



Alumina " g " 14 



Carbonate of lime " 5 " 12 



An excellent soU for wheat (see Davy^s Agricul- 

 tural Chemistry, page 162) gave: — • 



Carbonate of lime 28 



Silica 32 



Alumina 29 



Animal and Vegetable matter and moisture 11 



100 



I could easily fill a small volume with soil-analyses 

 made in tlie first quarter of the present century by 

 no mere pretenders, but by the illustrious fothers of 

 the science of Analytical Chemistry, which have 

 proved to be of incalculable value to agi-iculture. 

 It is true, they were quite limited in extent as com- 

 pared with the most critical and minute researches 

 of the best analysts of the present time. They 

 demonstrated, however, this pregnant fact : that all 

 soils, in all climates and countries, distinguished for 

 theii- enduring fruitfulness, abound in lime, as well as 

 clay and sand (c). This fact being fully established, 

 I early felt a deep interest to ascertam, if possible, 

 what is tlie least quantity of the calcareous element 

 in common soUs wMch will suffice for all useful pur- 

 poses in tillage and husbandi-y. In what way can 

 this question be settled better than by first analyzing 

 one's arable fields to learn the exact amount of 

 available lime in the soU ; and then experunent in 

 the application of lune, from time to tune, and on 

 many fields in many places, to estiiblish a mass of 

 facts bearing on the gi-and smgle problem to be 

 solved? For the last tJiirty years, I have never 

 long ceased from urging upon pubUc attention the 



vast unportance of having experimental farms to 

 develope new and valuable trutlis in comiection 

 with apphed chemistry. In this matter I am liappy 

 to know that the Editor of the Oenesee Farmer and 

 the writer are entii-ely agreed ; and there is equal 

 agreement in reference to the propriety of analvzing 

 soils with a view to advance tlie science of agi-icul- 

 ture ; but you condemn m toto researches of this 

 kind made for the special benefit of the owner of the 

 soil analyzed. Now, if the latter has confidence m 

 the man whom he employs to make one or more 

 analyses, and is satisfied with the performance and 

 its practical results, why should any other man offi- 

 ciously interfere in the matter ? Why not leave the 

 parties to manage a purely personal business trans- 

 action to suit themselves ? {d) My course has been 

 not to advise farmers either to have their soils anal- 

 yzed, nor to abstain therefrom. In 1846, I had a 

 class of students, some of whom wished to learn tlie 

 artof analyzing soils as practiced in the best labora- 

 tories ; and for the benefit of such, I was willing to 

 be responsible for the general accuracy of their state- 

 ments and labors under my instruction for a com- 

 pensation that Avould cover the cost of pure chemi- 

 cals consumed, and the probable breakage of dehcate 

 aparatus ; and at the same time, I believed tlie in- 

 formation given would be worth to the recipients all 

 they paid for it, if not much more. Experience, 

 however, soon taught me that I could acquire more 

 useful knowledge in reference to the food of agricul- 

 tural plants — its scarcity or abundance in the soil — 

 by operating on a larger quantity of earth than by 

 following my text books in that particular. You 

 say:_ "Dr. Lee has never informed the agricultural 

 public that there has been any change in his views 

 on this subject since the above article was written." 

 This is a mistake. The article referred to was writ- 

 ten in the early part of the year 1846; and in the 

 January number of the Farmer for 1847, in a Jc^id- 

 ing editorial, I "informed the agi-icultural public" 

 tliat I "claimed to have made great imprmenunts 

 on the ordinary process of conducting these chemi- 

 cal manipulations, by which farmers' sons only 1 G 

 years old, at their first trial, extracted and correctly 

 weighed a mineral equal to the 15,000th part of a 

 soil." At that time I had an extremely delicate 

 balance — the largest weight used upon it was 1000 

 grains, and the smallest the 100th part of a grain. 

 Between these, there are 100,000 parts which may 

 be indicated by the balance. In illustrating my 

 improvement, I said: "As we work for the public 

 good, and pay out five dollars for chemicals where 

 we get one back, we will state a single process : 



"In analyzing the soils in the southern tier of 

 counties in this State in the ordinary way, by taking 

 only 100 gi-ains, we find scarcely a trace of lime; 

 and yet all plants that gi-ow there contain notable 

 portions of this mineral m their ashes. As all prac- 

 tical farmers, as well as men of science, concede tlie 

 gi-eat vahie of lime in all soils, and especially for 

 growing wheat and other cereal plants, we have 

 regarded it as worth some trouble and expense to 

 find out a way to determine the quantity of lime 

 in a soil, though it shall make only one part in one 

 hundred thousand. This is our process : Burn oif 

 the organic matter in ten pounds of the earth, by 

 repeated doses, in a large crucible or a clean iron 

 basin. Two pounds of this may be treated at a tune 

 m a large glass basin so thm that it will st^nd tho 



