No. 199.] 443 



ought to be before we plant, or we had as well not plant at all. Un- 

 doubtedly, therefore, we want the aid of a sound chemical examina- 

 tion, in many cases, before we undertake to establish orchards or an- 

 nual crops of vegetables. A life is wasted in vain expectations of ve- 

 getable wealth from a soil not having the chemical components re- 

 quired by our trees, plants, and fruits. 



Mr. Meigs reminded the club that in a close clay soil — one of tlie 

 best amendments — one of necessity was sand, as much or more than 

 manure, even seashore sand. 



Mr. Holmes, said that the latter probably contained shelly matter 

 like snail. 



Mr. Meigs. — The sand makes the soil porous. That a singular 

 result was found on the farm of Mr. Maxwell, at Nyack, on our 

 Hudson river. In order to have clean hard walks in the garden, the 

 former proprietor covered them with disintegrated sand stone, (called 

 at the quarry Kellis,) and that instead of a fine freestone path, free of 

 weeds, he had a growth of white clover as thick as the hair on a 

 man's head. 



Judge Van Wyck said that similar results were had from clay and 

 snail soils. 



Mr. Ross remarked that clay was very favorable to the growth of 

 white clover, and that lime was favorable to that of the red top. 



The Chairman. — I cleared a field of two hundred acres of forest 

 in Erie county, and white clover sprung up all over it ; and last year 

 I saw on the banks of the Delaware a field which the owner, finding 

 to be barren, let the fresh river water upon it, and kept it on for five 

 years ; he then, at low tide, run it off, and when it was dry enouorh to 

 work, he found from one to three feet of deposit upon it. He sowed 

 timothy grass on it, which covered about two-thirds of it, while on the 

 rest of it there came a rich spontaneous growth of green grass, not 

 known in that quarter. Where did those seeds come from ? 



