1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



269 



facts as the above, and a thousand more, such as 

 the cost of labor on each field and crop, every ex- 

 pense of repairs, tools, stock, and the like, the 

 course of the winds, the rainfall, frosts, and all 

 else that belongs to the climate. 



Accurate farm accounts are almost unknown in 

 this country, and yet without them, we can feel 

 no assurance as to the profit or loss of any opera- 

 tion. This book is arranged for keeping them 

 accurately for 25 years, beginning with 1860. If 

 farmers would but be as accurate as merchants, in 

 their farm aS'airs, agriculture would soon become 

 here, as it is in Europe in several countries, a cer- 

 tain and profitable business, instead of the chance 

 matter it too often is with us. 



We earnestly advise every farmer to keep care- 

 ful and reliable memoranda of all his operations, 

 and we know of no more convenient form than 

 that here presented, for preserving the incidents 

 of the farm, for future reference and comparison. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 STUDIES OF THE SOIL—H-o. 2. 

 BY WILLIAM EDSOX. 



Upon the examination of any productive soil 

 we find the following arrangement of strata : 



1. A layer of dark earth varying in thickness 

 from a few inches to a foot or more. Chemically, 

 this soil contains more carbon and ammonia, or 

 in other words, more organized matter, than the 

 subjacent strata. 



2. A layer of earth which is generally finer in 

 its composition and lighter in color than the first ; 

 this, also, contains some vegetable matter, but 

 usually partakes more of the original nature of 

 the soil than it does of the first or carbonized 

 stratum. The thickness is commonly but a few 

 inches. In many cases we find no well defined 

 stratum to which we can give the name of subsoil, 

 the whole mass, to the depth of several feet, pre- 

 sents a uniform appearance, with the exception 

 that the upper portion shows a slight change at 

 its junction with the first stratum. The cause for 

 the absence of a well defined subsoil must be as- 

 signed to the porosity and slight retentiveness of 

 the mass. It occurs in morines and alluvials, 

 very rarely in primtive, lake or river deposited 

 soils. 



3. Where there is a definite subsoil we find im- 

 mediately under it a stratum of impervious earth, 

 rock, or perhaps a permanent water table. Im- 

 pervious earth in this situation receives the name 

 of "pan" or "hard-pan." 



The above division is clearly independent of 

 any geological formation. It depends entirely 

 upon causes that are in perpetual action ; these 

 are, air, rain, change of temperature and vegeta- 

 tion. 



For the purpose of clearly understanding how 

 this division is produced, let us suppose a tract of 

 country has just undergone some great geologi- 

 cal change, and that it presents at the surface a 

 conglomeration of materials, but no stratification 

 or definite division. If we penetrate it, we find 

 that its nature does not change as we descend, at 



least for a depth that exceeds that of any earth 

 that has effect upon vegetation- Such soil must 

 of necessity be barren ; though it may contain all 

 of the elements of a productive soil, and even in 

 what is said to be the right proportion, its ele- 

 ments are held in such close chemical conforma- 

 tion as to be useless for the nourishment of veg- 

 etation. Now, if we consider the action of time, or 

 rather what is called weathering, upon this mass, 

 we shall see how the surface strata receive their 

 varieties of soils, subsoils and pans. 



The great agents eff'ecting these changes are, as 

 has been stated above, air, and its gases, rain, 

 change of temperature and vegetation. The gas- 

 es held in the atmosphere cannot act upon the 

 soil to any extent otherwise than through the 

 agencies of rain or vegetation. 



These gases are oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen 

 and carbonic acid. Oxygen exists in the atmos- 

 phere in two forms, viz : in chemical combination 

 with carbon, forming carbonic acid gas, and in 

 mechanical combination with nitrogen, forming 

 air. Hydrogen exists in but one form, that is in 

 combination with nitrogen forming ammonia. 



Carbonic acid gas has occasioned great inquiry 

 among modern philosophers on account of its con- 

 nection with the coal formations. It has been 

 strongly argued by some that at one period of the 

 earth's existence, viz : the carboniferous, this gas 

 was much more plentiful than at present. The 

 advocates of this theory draw their argument 

 principally from the fact that large quantities of 

 carbon are annually secreted by plants and trees, 

 and that a large part of these are not again de- 

 composed, but are buried in the earth, thus per- 

 manently removing from the atmosphere a great 

 portion of its carbon. 



The unsoundness of this argument will be made 

 apparent by applying precisely the same line of 

 reasoning to the earth, thus : through the agency 

 of volcanoes, springs, &c., large quantities of car- 

 bonic acid are known to be taken from the earth 

 and given to the atmosphere, therefore, in the ear- 

 ly periods of the earth's history, much less carbon 

 existed in the atmosphere than at present. The 

 truth lies in neither the one nor the other of these 

 arguments, but in both. While it is true that the 

 plants are constantly absorbing and deposit- 

 ing this gas, the volcanoes and springs are decom- 

 posing and dispersing it. Thus nature shows her- 

 self ever evenhanded. 



Although carbonic acid gas forms but one 

 twenty-five hundredth part of the atmosphere, its 

 action upon vegetation is of the greatest impor- 

 tance. Some maintain that plants can deiive their 

 carbon from no other source, all admit that the 

 greater part is thus derived. Its action upon the 

 soil is mostly through the agency of vegetation ; 

 but still it performs an important part indepen- 

 dently, by decomposing almost all minerals. It 

 acts as a mechanical agent in making the soil finer, 

 and, in roughening the particles, helps to keep it 

 open to the action of air and water. The only 

 instance in which carbonic acid is injurious to the 

 soil, is when it, in connection with iron, forms 

 graphite or black lead. It may be solely owing 

 to this action that the first oxide of iron is so 

 poisonous to the soil. In this case the iron does 

 not combine with the carbon, but simply acts as 

 an excitant for the carbon to form itself into 

 graphite. 



