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to the evidences of these results, it is sometimes urged, that these crops were 

 raised in peculiar and favored localities, which are exceptions to the general 

 character of the soil. The error of this position will be most apparent to 

 any one who will make the proper investigation. These localities will be 

 found in no respect superior to the average of plain lands and precisely 

 similar to the soil of the wilds, which is only separated from them by a 

 simple fence. I will now briefly notice some of the objections which are 

 advanced to the culture of these lands. I have already incidentally dis- 

 cussed some of the most prominent. 



Objections to their Culture. — One of the most prevalent objec- 

 tions which is often urged, rests on the idea that the porosity of this soil 

 renders it too dry for cultivation and incapacitates it for the retention of 

 manure. The instances I have already introduced, such as the heavy crop 

 of grass upon the land of Mr. Taylor, with no application of any manure 

 for the five preceding years, seems, by practical results, to disprove this 

 theory. I have not space to discuss the question so much controverted, 

 whether manure is wasted by evaporation or leaching, but will assert with- 

 out hesitation, that a soil piade so adhesive by a preponderance of clay, as 

 characterizes the plain lands, is in danger of being too compact rather 

 than too open. A superficial soil of this kind, from twenty inches to three 

 feet in depth, can scarcely suffer from porosity, and that it does not, is evi- 

 dent from the heavy crops of grain and grass it yields, and the luxuriant 

 growth of fruit trees on the improved spots, as well as the immense bur- 

 then of forest trees and vegetation it bears in its native condition. I be- 

 lieve that the under stratum of coarse gravel which must cause this porosi- 

 ty, if it exists, has no greater effect upon the superficial soil than would 

 be produced on any earth by a thorough system of under-draining. It is 

 this agency that carries off the surface water and renders the soil dry and 

 warm. That the influence of this formation is useful and its effects similar 

 to that of under-draining, appears from the fact mentioned by Mr. Bridger, 

 that on removing the earth with a hoe, in the dryest weather, he always 

 found moisture beneath. He stated that his crops never suffered from the 

 drought. This moisture is doubtless the effect of capilliary attraction, 

 which, it is contended, is an agency that causes one of the peculiar benefits 

 secured by under-drainage. 



Sourness. — There is, I believe, little difference of opinion in reference 

 to the fact, that the bush plains are affected by an innate acidity which im- 

 parts a certain degree of coldness and infertility to the land in its natural 

 state. It is not greater, however, than might exist in any earths which 

 have been shrouded for ages from the influence of the sun and air, by a 

 heavy foliage, where leaves accumulate in deposit on the surface and are 

 in various processes of decomposition. The application of alkalis, or 

 quickening manures and the effect of cultivation alone, rapidly relieve the 

 soil from this property. When it is turned up to the action of the sun and 

 feels the influence of the elements, this acidity soon disappears. This re- 

 sult is apparent from the circumstance, of which I am amply assured, that 



