340 ANALYSIS OF SOILS 



Analysis of a red clay from Christian-hollow. 

 Compact, fine grained, and nearly without grittiness between the teeth. 



Water 13-64 



Organic matter 2-72 



Peroxide of iron and ahimina 27-40 



Carbonate of lime 8-29 



Potash - 2-60 



Magnesia 1 -36 



Soluble silica - 0-24 



Silica - 44-84 



100-00 



This clay furnishes, what might have been expected, a respectable quantity of potash ; and 

 the composition of the material shows that it may be used to ameliorate the exhausted 

 soils, in those places where the expense of the work will not exceed that of other modes. 

 It is evidently adapted to soils which are light and deficient in lime. The potash was 

 obtained without fusion with an alkali. 



The result which has been obtained from the preceding analyses, is one which was quite 

 unexpected. It appears that those soils which are so well adapted to the cultivation of 

 wheat, are comparatively destitute of the phosphates, only a few analyses having given 

 an appreciable quantity in one hundred grains. Four hundred grains of the wheat soil of 

 Monroe county were tried for the phosphates, but without obtaining a trace. In 1000 

 grains they became appreciable, but did not amount to more than 0*20 of a grain. 



In this result, we find a remarkable diflerence in the maize and wheat soils ; the former 

 requiring the phosphates, while the latter does not require them in a quantify so decisive. 

 But other qualities are essential to the growth of wheat, which are not requisite for maize. 

 The former, for instance, must be supplied with organic matter in combination with the 

 alkalies and alkaline earth. When a wheat soil is treated with water, it dissolves twice 

 the quantity of the organic salts that we have obtained from the maize soils of the Taconic 

 district. A fact which supports this view of the subject, is found in the crops of maize 

 grown upon some of the western wheat soils : they are smaller, and inferior to those raised 

 upon the taconic hills. 



In Christian-hollow, the farm of Mr. Palmer produces wheat which is always plump in 

 the grain, and in quantity equalling the premium crops ; yet the maize crop, upon the 

 same soil, yields only about forty bushels per acre, and sixty bushels would be considered 

 a remarkable crop. 



We have already given our views of the origin of the wheat soils of Central New-York, 

 namely, that they originate from the shales below the Manlius waterlimes, those soft and 

 decomposal)le deposits which form the salt rocks. In the lowest member of this dei)osit, we 

 obtained a trace of jihosphate of alumina ; but the method, though one recommended and 

 followed by chemists, is certainly exceptionable. The shales above the red marl appear 



