198 On Oat Pasture, 



plants was pulverised earth ; the fact daily before us 

 is, that pulverized earth, retains the ?noistiire and mV, 

 as the handmaids of vegetation, some experiments have 

 lately been made, the results of which favor these re- 

 marks, viz. " that soils afforded quantities of air by 

 distillation, somewhat corresponding to the ratios of 

 their values. ^^ 



Inclosed I have sent soils in ihe state they were found> 

 before the courses mentioned were introduced. 



No. 1. A sample of the unimproved soil about three 

 inches deep. 



No. 2. A sample of the same soil four inches deep, 

 improved by the lime compost two years. 



No. 3. A sample two inches deep from the field in 

 its exhausted state. 



No. 4. A sample three inches deep from the same 

 field, which was once sown in pasture oats, and has been 

 one year in gi'ass sown after the oats, which did not take 

 well, partly owing to the late season when it was sown ; 

 and partly owing to the seed having been injured, and 

 the soil still cold. 



No. 5. A sample two inches from an exhausted field. 



No. 6. A sample four inches from the same field 

 after pasture oats, which was followed by wheat, a poor 

 crop, and succeeded by oats a middling crop, with 

 clover which yielded a considerable swarth last season : 



