12 



plants, and bringing it into a condition by which it can be taken up 

 by their roots. The mode by which lime assists vegetation is 

 still unascertained. Nature draws an impenetrable veil over 

 her subtle operations ; and at a certain point, human sagacity, 

 however acute and prying, is repelled under the stern mandate, 

 " Hitherto shalt ihou come, but no farther." The rich alluvial soils 

 of the West, and \he calcareous regions of western New York, are 

 equally productive of wheat. We have instances of like success, 

 and uniform success, in which, wheat has been constantly culti- 

 vated with hardly a failure, (and where, when it has failed, its failure 

 has evidently depended upon external atmospheric influences, rather 

 than upon any conditions of the soil,) for periods of many years on 

 the same farm ; and at the ordinary yield of from twenty to thirty 

 bushels to the acre. This has happened on alluvial lands and granitic 

 soils, where the presence of lime has scarcely been detected, and where 

 none has been artificially applied. We have a high opinion of the 

 value of lime applied to the land in the form of a sulphate, as plaster 

 of paris, or of phosphate, as in bone manure ; or as a carbonate in the 

 form of ground lime-stone, or as quick lime, which soon becomes 

 carbonated. We have a high opinion of other alkaline manures, 

 when applied to the soil, though the beneficial results, as of common 

 wood ashes for example, are not always seen, and not always uniform. 

 But the fertility of a soil depends much more upon the vegetable 

 matter contained in it, what Dr. Dana denominates the "geine," or 

 vegetable food, than upon the presence or absence of any particular 

 earth or salts. The efficacy of lime and ashes I do not question ; 

 but their indispensableness in any quantity beyond what the former is 

 found, in some form, in most soils, (and I understand Dr. Dana 

 to say that the particular form in which it is found, is of little com- 

 parative importance,) is not so far confirmed by any facts which have 

 yet come to light in the experience of some of the most observing 

 farmers of the state, that it may be considered as established. But 

 on this subject I shall have occasion to speak hereafter. 



The soils in the county of Berkshire abound in rich vegetable 

 mould. Any person who has seen the luxuriant jjastures of Che- 



satonic, and some of the beautiful lands in the neighborhood of 



