504 fAsSEMBLTT 



to the depth of a foot. On establishing the ratio between the 

 1200 lbs. and the weight of the acre of ground, we shall find that 

 it amounts to •00027-{-, a quantity within whose limits must be 

 contained the difference on analysis between the soil of early 

 Virginia, a soil marvellously fruitful, and the same fields now 

 given up to the feeding of sheep. How delicate must be the 

 tests, how sensitive the balances that can appreciate the different 

 items that go to make up such a sum. But here the question 

 arises. Is there any way in which such a soil may be restored ? At 

 what cost can these 1200 lbs. of the alkalies be supplied 1 If we 

 suppose that the mixture of potash and soda, of which they con- 

 sist, could be purchased at 3 cents per lb., it would amount to 

 $3'5 per acre to be added to the present worth. It follows, then, 

 that if a restitution of the saline constituents of such a soil would 

 restore it, it might be done at such expense as would purchase 28 

 or more times as much new Western land at government price. 

 And, sir, in these days of steam communication, when men mea- 

 sure distance by hours instead of miles. Such considerations as 

 these are coming to have more and more weight. Long Island 

 was once the garden of New- York, but the enterprise of a gentle- 

 man present has demonstrated that New Jersey, by scientific ma- 

 nagement, may compete with it, and they must both of them yet 

 compete with the prairies. 



I said, sir, if a restitution of the saline constituents to such a 

 soil would restore it, it is certain that their presence alone would 

 not restore it. Experience has shown, in those portions of the 

 State where wood exclusively is consumed for fuel, and where 

 asheries have made large supplies of leached ashes, that those 

 materials are very valuable, } tt that the most copious dressings 

 of them cannot fully and immediately restore land — cannot sup- 

 ply the want of carbonic acid and ammonia in the soil. Berze- 

 lius found urine to contain only one per cent of salts, and Dr, 

 Jackson, of Rhode Island, in an analysis quoted by Dr. Giegoiy, 

 in his edition of Liebig's chemistry, found fresh horse manure to 

 contain not quite as much soluble salts. We cannot believe that 

 a pound of any agritultural salts can be worth a hundred weight 

 of either of these substances, ov that a farmer, who has to burn 

 them and carry out their ashes to his fields annually, would be a 



