AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 207 



be ascertained by the sight and feeling, by the aid of water, 

 or of glass. Sand subsides or settles quicker than clay in a 

 liquid; and will scratch glass, which clay will not. 



It is a remarkable fact in the economy of nature, that the 

 indigenous plants of every country are precisely those which 

 are best adapted to furnish the proper sustenance to its ani- 

 mal population, and to satisfy its medicinal wants. So in 

 regard to our soils ; every district generally affords the means 

 of producing fertility. Hence the clay marls generally un- 

 derlay sands ; and shell and sand marls most abound in the 

 neighborhood of clays. And in addition to the variety of 

 fossil substances which are calculated to increase fertility, 

 every thing that grows upon the earth, every particle of ani- 

 mal and vegetable matter, is reduced to air and water by the 

 chemical operations of nature, and in these forms become the 

 food of new plants, to nourish animals. It is a truth calculat- 

 ed to teach humility, that the animal, the vegetable, and the 

 putrid mass of dung, are found on chemical analysis to be 

 very nearly alike, and that, in the natural order of things, 

 they constantly nourish, feed, and produce each other. 

 ' Nothing is nourishment for a vegetable but what enters into 

 the permanent composition of a vegetable. Nothing is nou- 

 risl merit for an animal but what was originally a vegetable.' 

 Man is enjoined to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. 

 He finds the most noble incitements to duty scattered around 

 him, and he is seldom disappointed in obtaining the rewards, 

 competence and health, which industry promises to her vota- 

 ries. Bot I have another remark to make as to the food of 

 vegetables. How scrupulously careful is the farmer of his 

 grain, hay, and roots, which are destined to nourish and fat- 

 ten his animals; and yet how thoughtless and inattentive as 

 to the food of his plants ! Vegetable and animal substances 

 are suffered to waste in his fields and yards, unmindful of the 

 havoc which the rains, winds, and sun, are daily making 

 upon them ; while a moiety of his fertilizing materials, the 

 urine of his stock, is altogether lost. He will not suffer the 

 flocks of his neighbors to rob his own of their food ; yet he 

 sees, with but feeble efforts to prevent it, his plants plundered 

 by pestiferous weeds of the food which is essential to their 

 health and vigor. 



'To find the composition of a marl, pour a few ounces of 

 diluted muriatic acid into a Florence flask ; place them in a 

 scale, and let them be balanced : then reduce a few ounces 

 of dry marl into pov/der ; and let this powder be carefully 



