J. E. TESCHEMACHER'S ADDRESS. 613 



There it has annually absorbed the ammoniacal malter from 

 the rain and snow for ages, and all its good qualities have been 

 condensed into the charcoal. Here is a specimen of this soil pre- 

 sented to me by Dr. Lyman Bartlett, of New Bedford, from his 

 brother's farm in northern Illinois. No one can fail to observe 

 that it is a black charcoal y mass, and rich crops are raised an- 

 nually from it, yet it is found to be much improved by barn- 

 yard manure, because it is like an excellent sponge, absorbing 

 all the rich juices thereof. On close examination, I find it 

 rather deficient in the phosphates, and ammonia, which it ob- 

 tains from barnyard manure ; a very little more lime in the 

 shape of plaster would also be beneficial. [This specimen 

 was obtained by pushing this tube down into the soil, and is 

 therefore a true sample.] It will be seen that a bed of clay 

 underlies the black mass, and under the clay, a bed of gravel 

 composed of stones like this sample. These are masses of 

 quartz (silica) and of a siliceous limestone. This soil has 

 therefore been formed by decomposing vegetable matter proba- 

 bly in a pulpy liquid state, and is held in large basins of clay, 

 through which knolls or hillocks of the gravel stones rise up, 

 often appearing above the black soil in little clumps ; these 

 have formed natural drains for the water. These clay basins 

 often extend fifty to sixty miles or more in diameter. It is 

 very possible that a careful examiiiation of these charcoaly de- 

 posits may throw light on the formation of the immense beds 

 of coal in this country, under each of which there is a bed 

 of clay, and below the whole formation a hard coiiglomerate 

 rock with just such pebbles, indurated by enormous pressure 

 for long periods. 



Such accumulations of black vegetable matter in New Eng- 

 land are much smaller and are usually formed in basins of the 

 granite rock; although of smaller extent they are of very fre- 

 quent occurrence, are what are termed om* peat bogs, but be- 

 ing formed of dilFerent vegetable matter, are by no means so 

 valuable are those in the West. 



It is precisely such a black carbonaceous mass as this, only 

 much more lhoro\ighly saturated with ammonia, the phos- 

 phates, and all the other valuable ingredients of manure that 



