AMENDMENT OF SOILS. 259 



the Nantucket by Mr. Johnson ; upon the Martha's Vineyard by 

 Mr. Cole ; and upon the Ilampshire, Franklin and Hampden by 

 Mr. Watkins. 



These reports were laid over ; when it was 



Voted, That a committee of three be appointed, to select and 

 report upon subjects for investigation and essays. " 



This committee was constituted by the appointment of Messrs. 

 Clark, Birnie and Slade. 



Mr. Sanderson then presented the following Report upon 



AMENDING SOILS BY MECHANICAL MEANS. 



To amend is to change in any way for the better. The word 

 "mechanical," in this connection, is not so easily defined. 

 Chemical action and changes often result in connection with 

 the farmer's labors. These changes will be considered as 

 mechanical means when they are induced by circumstances 

 over which the cultivator of the soil has had control. 



It will be appropriate to inquire in this connection, What is 

 soil ? Geologists have well established the fact that the surface 

 of the earth, at a very remote period, and before it was inhabited 

 by man, was rock ; and that there was what is termed the " geo- 

 logical ice period ; " the ice being several thousand feet thick, 

 and covering the surface of the earth, became a slowly moving 

 mass called " glacier." 



It is further established beyond reasonable doubt that de- 

 tached portions of the rock, by attrition and huge grinding 

 processes between the ice and solid rock, produced the pres- 

 ent mass of material called, in geological term, " drift," 

 including the entire mass now resting on the firm rock. 



The nature of this deposit must be the same throughout its 

 entire depth, varying only as it was produced from rocks of 

 different character, as different kinds of sandstone, limestone, 

 and in the coarseness or fineness of the material. We have 

 thus brought together, in a most wonderful manner, the mass 

 of material we call " earth." And as we proceed to consider 

 its nature, the forces that act upon it, and the power of man 

 in controlling, in a degree at least, those forces, every step is 

 wonderful. 



Sad is the fact that so much of the fair face of the earth has 

 been cropped again and again, without any adequate return 



