342 ANALYSIS OF SOILS 



Soil from Homer fiats, Cortland county. 



Surface soil, color dark brown, and very deep ; receives the wash of a neighboring hill. 

 Bore maize in 1846 : 420 bushels were harvested from four acres ; variety 8-rowed, yellow, 

 and middle size. The land was brought under cultivation forty years ago, and has been 

 under the plough most of the time since. The field has borne, during this time, ten crops 

 of maize ; average yield, sixty bushels per acre. It formerly bore good winter wheat, and 

 now bears very good spring wheat ; but the winter wheat is uncertain, and is liable to 

 shrink and fail. The formation is above the Hamilton shales, and the rock is equivalent 

 to the Ithaca group. 



ANALYSIS. 



Being dried thoroughly, it lost 8-40 grs. The dried soil gave, by the 



First process. Second process. 



Organic matter 8'16 0-00 



Silica and silicates - 73-20 67-02 



Peroxide of iron and alumina — 14-02 0-00 



The same combined 0-00 5-18 



Potash..- -- 3-16 0-00 



Lime - -- 0-25 0-00 



Solublesilica 1-20 0-00 



Magnesia trace. 0-00 



100-99 72-20 



Phosphates appreciable. 



^0(7 from the farm of Mr. .W. Salisbury. 



This is a good indian corn soil, and yields also good crops of potatoes, oafs, barley and 

 grass. It formerly bore good winter wheat, and now produces good spring wheat by liming. 

 Maize this year (1846), seventy-five bushels per acre. The seed, before planting, was 

 soaked in sulphate of iron, which seemed to give it an early start. The land received also 

 a compost of three bushels of lime, four bushels of ashes, and one bushel and a half of 

 salt, per acre. The hills were manured from the hog sty. The land has been under 

 cultivation twenty-nine years ; during this time, it has been down to grass eight years, and 

 the remaining twenty-one years under the plough. In 1844, twelve bushels of lime per 

 acre were sowed upon the field, and maize was then planted : the field contained five acres. 

 A part yielded eighty Inishels per acre, and the rest seventy-five. Spring wheat, in 1845, 

 yielded thirty bushels per acre, using no manure. Farm situated on a slope of 4<^ : rests 

 on the Ithaca group. 



