KINDS OF SOILS. 143 



and fertility. Unfortunately, while there are almost num- 

 berless varieties of soil having numberless grades of pro- 

 ductive power, we are very deficient in terms by which to 

 express concisely even the fact of their differences, not to 

 mention our inability to define these differences with ac- 

 curacy, or our ignorance of the precise nature of their 

 peculiarities. 



As regards mode of formation or deposition, soils are 

 distinguished into Sedentary and Transported. The lat- 

 ter are subdivided into Drift., Alluvial., and Colluvial 

 soils. 



Sedentary Soils* or Soils in place, are those which have 

 not been transported by geological agencies, but which 

 remain where they were formed, covering or contiguous 

 to the rock from whose disintegration they originated. 

 Sedentary soils have usually little depth. An inspection 

 of the rock underlying such soils often furnishes most 

 valuable information regarding their composition and 

 })robable agricultural value; because the still un weathered 

 rock reveals to the practised eye the nature of the min- 

 erals, and thus of the elements, composing it, while in the 

 soil these may be indistinguishable. 



In New England and the region lying north of the Ohio 

 and east of the Missouri rivets, soils in place are not 

 abundant as compared with the entire area. Nevertheless 

 they do occur in many small patches. Thus the red-sand- 

 stone of the Connecticut Valley often crops out in that 

 part of New England, and, being, in many localities, of a 

 friable nature, has crumbled to soil, which now lies undis- 

 turbed in its original position. So, too, at the base of trap- 

 bluffs may be found trap-soils, still full of sharp-angled 

 fragments of the rock. 



Transported Soils, (subdivided into drift, alluvial, and 

 colluvial), are those which have been removed to a dis- 

 tance from the rock-beds whence they originated, by th« 



