HAMPDEN SOCIETY. 235 



D. A. Wells's Communication. 



Cambridge, September, 1851. 

 To the President of the Hampden Co. Agricultural Society : 



You request that I would communicate to the Hampden 

 County Agricultural Society, such facts in regard to the exami- 

 nation and analyses of soils as I may be possessed of, and 

 which in my opinion may subserve the agricultural interests of 

 Hampden county. It gives me great pleasure to comply with 

 your request so far as I am able, and although my experience 

 has been somewhat limited, yet impressed with the feeling that 

 the main object of investigators and promoters of agricultural 

 science should be the collection of facts having a practical 

 bearing upon the wants of the agriculturists, I furnish, without 

 distrust, the result of my investigations and observations. 



In May, 1851, I was intrusted by the secretary of the Ohio 

 State Board of Agriculture, with the office of examining, anal- 

 yzing, and reporting upon the nature and composition of the 

 soils of that state, and upon this work I have been actively 

 engaged during the past summer. The question which pre- 

 sents itself before me at the present time is this: — Is there 

 anything of profit or interest applicable to wants of the agri- 

 culturist of Hampden, to be drawn from these investigations 

 of Ohio soils? The fertility of the rich lands along the valley 

 of the Scioto and Miami Rivers, is known world wide. The 

 sterility of Massachusetts soils, and of the soils of Naw Eng- 

 land generally, with the exception of some alluvial deposits 

 along the river bottoms, has an almost equally extensive repu- 

 tation. Will the results of complete and accurate chemical 

 analyses show a reason for these differences, and at the same 

 time indicate a remedy wholly or partially effectual ? This 

 question may perhaps best be answered by a comparison of the 

 analyses of some of the best soils in Ohio, with the analyses 

 of soils from Hampden county ; and with this end in view I 

 subrnit the following abstracts of the analyses of five soils ; 

 two from Ohio and three from Hampden county. The first is 

 the analysis of a soil from the Ree'Ree Bottom, in the county 

 of Pike, embraced in the district known as the Scioto Valley,' 



