EARTHS AND SOILS. 103 



Strongly mark the character of the soil. The predomi- 

 nant ingredient is not always the most abundant. If 

 the most abundant was considered the predominant 

 ingredient, and gave its name to the soil, then almost 

 everyone should be called silicious, as that earth is 

 seldom equaled in quantity by ail the others united. 

 If the earthy parts of a soil were two thirds silicious 

 and one third aluminous earth, the peculiar qualities of 

 the smaller ingredient would predominate over the 

 opposing qualities of the sand, and the mixture would 

 be a tenacious clay. If the same soil had contained 

 only one twentieth part of calcareous earth, that ingre- 

 dient would have had more marked effects on the soil 

 than could have been produced by either doubling or 

 diminishing to half their quantity the silicious and 

 aluminous earths which formed the great bulk of the 

 soil. But every farmer can readily discover what are 

 the most marked good or bad qualities of his soil, as 

 evinced under tillage ; and those qualities can be easily 

 traced to their predominant ingredients. A silicious 

 or sandy soil has such a proportion of silicious earth 

 as to show more of its peculiar properties than of any 

 other ingredient. It would be more or less objection- 

 able for its looseness, heat, or want of power to retain 

 moisture, and not for toughness, liability to become 

 hard after wet ploughing, or any other quality of alumi- 

 nous earth. In like manner, an aluminous or clayey 

 soil would show strongly the faults of aluminous 

 earth, though more than half its bulk might be of 

 silicious earth. Hence every farmer can readily judge 

 of the perfection and of the defects of his soil, which, 

 from a knowledge of the distinctive properties of the 

 earths, he will be enabled to correct by the addition 

 and mechanical mixture of such earth as may appear 

 to be deficient, thereby produce a soil the best cal- 

 culated to promote the growth and perfection of vege- 

 tation. Joseph Cloud. 



