SOILS. 89 



Your horse's cellar should be about ten feet square, 

 that the manure may not rise too high before you are 

 ready to remove it ; but you can occasionall}?" tie a 

 friend's horse beside him when you have not other 

 room, and they will never kick each other if their heads 

 are tied apart ; for horses never suffer their heels to 

 make war until some notes have passed at head- 

 quarters.* 



SOILS. 



It is agreed by chemists that most of the soils with 

 which we are acquainted consist of sand, clay, and 

 lime : we beg the reader's pardon for using these plain, 

 simple terms, and fear we shall not be understood by 

 some who have become used to silicious, aluminous, 

 and calcareous soils so long that they may have for- 

 gotten their mother tongue ; but as it is our object to 

 treat of things rather than of words, Ave intend, at the 

 risk of our reputation as a Latin scholar, to make use of 

 the English language in all cases where that is capable 

 of conveying our meaning. 



Sand, clay, and lime, then, are the principal con- 

 stituents of most of our soils, though magnesia is often 

 found in small quantities: iron ore and other minerals 

 are occasionally found intermixed, but they are not 

 considered as forming a portion of the soil. Lime is 

 found in but very small quantity in any New England 

 soil, and Professor Hitchcock is surprised to find so 

 little in the soils of Berkshire county which are founded 

 on limestone. 



He says that some of the soils in Europe contain 

 fifty per cent, of lime, or calcareous matter, and that 



* Written when Maine was going to war with the British without 

 leave of congress. 



