JOHN P. NORTON'S ADDRESS. 571 



There is no shower of rain, no change of temperature, or of 

 season, that does not have some direct or indirect influence on 

 the soil ; it is a species of laboratory, where silently and invis- 

 ibly, but constantly, transformations are going forward which 

 prepare materials for the living and growing plant. The causes, 

 and the nature, and the end of these changes, are all objects 

 for careful and persevering study ; they combine to affect the 

 farmer's operations and his success. 



Let us take the influence of water upon the soil, as an exam- 

 ple, and show how much is to be learned under this single 

 head. A shower of rain falls upon the surface of the earth, and 

 sinks down till it comes to some impervious layer, or water 

 level. If this impervious layer, or water level, be at a consid- 

 erable distance below the surface, then the effect of the rain is 

 beneficial ; there is merely enough left in the upper layer of soil 

 to moisten, but not to wet it ; air can consequently also find 

 access, and the whole mass, to a considerable depth, is warmed 

 by the rays of the sun. All of these conditions are requisite, 

 as they are necessary to cause fertility by the regular and pro- 

 gressive occurrence of those changes, which fit the soil to be- 

 come a part of the plant. If the land is too dry, such changes 

 will not occur, and even all that is already soluble cannot 

 enter the roots ; in a dry, parched soil then, the plant fails, 

 because it has no means of conveying its food up from the 

 earth. Thus far, the action of water seems to be always ben- 

 eficial. I might go at length into remarks on its good efl"ect in 

 the forms of rain, dew, vapor, ice, and snow ; but will at pres- 

 ent only speak of the evil influence which it sometimes exerts. 

 Suppose a soil in which the water, in place of sinking too deep, 

 finds its level near the surface, or, as it does in some cases, im- 

 mediately upon the surface ; it now acts in a different way 

 from that which I have described. In the first place, air, and 

 secondly, warmth is excluded ; the soil then must remain cold, 

 and shut off" from the influences of the atmosphere. Wherever 

 this state of things exists, the formation of certain acid vegeta- 

 ble compounds commences, and if no steps are taken to remedy 

 the evil, goes on until the whole track is converted into a bog. 

 These vegetable compounds are black or deep brown, and are 



