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heavier inland soils will possess 60 to 70 per cent water-retaining 

 capacity. A soil, for example, that is adapted to onions is not 

 adapted to lettuce and one which will grow potatoes will not 

 necessarily grow tobacco. The influence of the physical proper- 

 ties of the soil can best be seen on our native species of plants. 

 Every farmer has noticed the fondness of the white birch, pitch 

 pine and scrub oak to dry, sandy or gravelly soils, and these 

 plants are seldom seen on the heavier clay soils. There are, in 

 fact, a considerable number of native plants in our State which 

 are so particular about the physical condition of the soil that they 

 can only be found in those localities where soil of a certain texture 

 abounds. The peculiarities in the distribution of the wild plants 

 would scarcely be noticeable except to a botanist, who has paid 

 some attention to the physical conformity of our flora, and a 

 knowledge of the habitats enables one to form a reliable concep- 

 tion of the nature of the soil upon which they are found growing. 

 The rattle-box (Crotalaria sagittalis) and barberry are types of 

 such plants, and, to a less extent, is the red cedar; the latter 

 species seem to delight in the presence of numerous cobble stones 

 as a soil condition. 



It is our intention to consider the chemical and physical changes 

 which have taken place in our Massachusetts soils during the past 

 two hundred and fifty years, and to ascertain whether the common 

 methods of cultivation which have been in vogue are well adapted 

 to produce crops of the same magnitude as those produced for- 

 merly. During the last decade we have heard much of abandoned 

 farms and worn-out soils, and it is well known that these farms 

 were not always in a sterile condition, but that they contained at 

 one time a considerable amount of plant food. We can again 

 turn to the consideration of the adaptation of our wild plants, in 

 order to obtain an idea of the changes which have taken place in 

 our soils, inasmuch as their predominance and scarcity in certain 

 localities gives us a clue to the soil conditions under which they are 

 growing, and to what extent they fail to conform to their natural 

 habitat. There are also many scattering historical records which 

 show us that plants which were once common have fallen off im- 

 mensely in certain localities during the last fifty or one hundred 

 years. 



It is not necessary for us to give a complete list of these plants 

 which historical records and present distribution indicate have be- 

 come less common ; we will, therefore, take into consideration only 

 a few of them. One of the most notable of these is the wild straw- 

 berry. This crop has deteriorated so in the greater part of Massa- 

 chusetts that one cannot procure, without diligent search, a pint of 



