62 MANY RICH SOILS NOT CALCAREOUS. 



richest alluvial lands of the upper country and, what will be 

 deemed by some as incredible, by far the greater part of the rich 

 limestone soils between the Blue Ridge and Alleghany Mountains 

 are equally destitute of Calcareous earth. These facts were not 

 named before, to avoid embarrassing the discussion of other points 

 nor can they now be explained, and reconciled with my proposi- 

 tion, except through a circuitous and apparently digressive course 

 of reasoning. They have not been kept out of view, nor slurred 

 over, to weaken their force, and are now presented in all their 

 strength. These difficulties will be considered, and removed, in 

 the following chapters. 



CHAPTER VI. 



CHEMICAL EXAMINATION OF RICH SOILS CONTAINING NO CALCA- 

 REOUS EARTH. 



PROPOSITION 2 continued. 



Under common circumstances, when any disputant admits facts 

 that seem to contradict his own reasoning, such admission is 

 deemed abundant evidence of their existence. But though %ow 

 placed exactly in this situation, the facts admitted by me are so 

 opposed to al^ that scientific agriculturists have taught us to expect, 

 that it is necessary for me to show the grounds on which my ad- 

 mission rests. Few would have believed in the absence of calca- 

 reous earth in all our poor soils, forming as they do the much 

 larger part of all this region and far more strange is it that the 

 same deficiency should extend to such rich soils as some that will 

 be here cited. 



The following specimens, taken from well known and very fertile 

 soils, were found to contain no calcareous earth. Many trials of 

 other rich soils have yielded like results- and, indeed, I have 

 never found calcareous earth in any soil below the falls of the 

 rivers, in which, or near which, some particles of shells were not 

 visible. 



1. Soil from Eppes' Island, which lies in Powhatan, or James- 

 river, near City Point ; light and friable (but not sandy) brown 

 loam, rich and durable. The surface is not many feet above the 

 highest tides, and, like most of the best* river lands, this tract 

 seems to have been formed by alluvion many ages ago, but which 

 may be termed recent, when compared to the geaeral formation of 

 the tide-water district. 



