1840.] SENATE— No. 36. 75 



the rich alluvions of the western prairies, where it is said that 

 sometimes sixty bushels of wheat are produced to an acre, that 

 there is a larger proportion of lime in any form, than in the old 

 soils of this vicinity. In an analysis by the geological sur- 

 veyor of the State, of five specimens of the best soils of Illi- 

 nois, the highest amount obtained of the carbonate of lime 

 was 3.3 out of 100 parts. But, in Massachusetts, several soils 

 have been found in parts of the country longest cultivated, 

 where the amount of the carbonate of lime has been in a hun- 

 dred parts as 3.- 5.- 5.4. No one pretends that any earth can 

 ever assume a gaseous form ; or in truth that the nature of this 

 earth can ever be changed, so that with whatever else it may 

 be combined it shall cease to be lime. But if absorbed or 

 taken up by plants, since those products are again returned to 

 the soil, it does not appear how the original quantity should be 

 exhausted by the growth of plants. It may have been swept 

 away in many situations by rains, which, where lands are 

 under cultivation, carry away lai-ge portions of the enriched 

 mould on the surface to deposite them on meadows and allu- 

 vions below. In this case, undoubtedly, many newly cleared 

 lands and side-hill situations have suffered a material deteriora- 

 tion, and the lime has passed off with other fertilizing portions 

 of the soil. Yet it will be admitted, at the same lime, that 

 our alluvial meadows, according to the analyses given, present 

 a less proportion of lime than many other lands. 



It has been said that lime is indispensable to the production 

 of wheat, because it is always found in the wheat plant. Of 

 the sulphate and phosphate of lime, some portion is found in 

 wheat, so also in rye, in Indian corn, in the haulm of potatoes, 

 and in various other plants, especially in clover ; but these 

 exist in either case in extremely mJnute quantities ; and as 

 it respects the existence of any earthy carbonate in wheat, it is 

 not understood to be found at all in the grain ; and in the 

 ashes of wheat straw, it is found only in the proportion of 

 eleven parts in a thousand. 



But, in truth, there is no deficiency of lime in our soils, so 



