APPENDIX X. 



The true Valua of Chemical Analysis of Soils. 



BY DR. JOHN D. EASTER, OF BALTIMORE. 



[From the Journal of the N. S. Agricultural Society, 1856. 



It is not long since the practical farmer sneeringly derided the 

 value of book learning and stubbornly resisted the interference 

 of scientific men, in what he considered a purely practical busi- 

 ness. But that feeling seems to have passed away, and even those 

 who still refuse to acknowledge the value of scientific researches 

 upon the composition of the soil, and its relation to the functions 

 of vegetation, are not slow to avail themselves of the benefits 

 which others have derived from them. Indeed we have reason to 

 fear that scientific superstition has taken the place of scientific 

 incredulity, and the farmer now expects as much too much from 

 chemistry, as he formerly expected too little. The result of these 

 overwrought expectations is, naturally, disappointment, and the 

 deluded farmer throws the blame of his failure on science, and is 

 more than ever determined to adhere to his old ways. 



I propose, in this paper, to consider the true use of chemical 

 analysis of soils, and some of the requisites of a valuable 

 analysis. 



As it is from the soil that plants derive the principal part of 

 their constituent elements the presence ia the soil of these ele- 

 ments, in f-jrras in which they may be absorbed by the rootlets of 

 the plants and assimilated in their cells, is indispensable to their 



