570 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



stance, and is of itself a good manure. You are not very far 

 from one of the most valuable localities of mineral phosphate, 

 on Lake Champlain. I have examined some of the mineral 

 veins from which it comes, and consider it worth far more than 

 a gold mine to the state of New York. The supply that it will 

 afford is very large, and the mineral obtained when dissolved 

 in sulphuric acid, as bones are, will form a most excellent ma- 

 nure ; from one to two hundred pounds of this, will be suffi- 

 cient for an acre, if applied in connection with about half the 

 usual quantity of yard manure. 



Manuring with a view of supplying particular defects, or, as 

 it is called, special manuring, will, doubtless, gradually find 

 favor here, as it has done in England and Scotland. It has, in 

 many cases, produced truly remarkable effects, and has brought 

 whole districts into a satisfactory state of fertility, that were 

 before only cultivated with great difficulty and expense. As our 

 knowledge of the true action of manure increases, we may ex- 

 pect to make still further advances in this department; but 

 even from what I have said at present, it is easy to perceive 

 that our knowledge as to the composition of the soil, and of 

 the plant, becomes, in its relations to the application of manures, 

 exceedingly valuable and practical. The above illustrations 

 are not more remarkable than a hundred others that might be 

 given. But I must endeavor to give you glimpses of one or 

 two other points. 



You have seen that some knowledge as to the nature and 

 number of the substances in the soil, is highly desirable. But 

 when by means of analyses we have attained full information 

 in this respect, both as to the soil itself, and then as to its rela- 

 tions with the plant, and with fertilizing agents, we have even 

 yet fulfilled but a small part of our duty in this department. 

 The substances of which the soil is made up, are not simple, 

 but compound, all united one with the other, forming what are 

 -called combinations ; thus carbonic acid combines with lime, 

 forming our common limestone, — it is easy to prove this. Now 

 these combinations are constantly changing and interchanging. 

 We are accustomed to look upon the soil as dead, and inert, as 

 almost unchangeable, but we are greatly mistaken in this view. 



