1903) VEGETATION OF THE BAY OF FUNDY MARSHES 289 
marsh, and hence also the rusty color of the water flowing from it. The 
remedies for this condition of the soil are draining and liming. Draining 
admits air and removes the saline water; lime decomposes the sulphate of 
iron and produces sulphate of lime and oxide of iron, both of which are useful 
substances to the farmer.* [*Since the publication of the first edition of 
this work, the blue marsh of Nova Scotia has been extensively improved by 
this process. | 
Grouping together the facts as to chemical composition, it is 
plain that the marsh soil as a whole is rather uniform in compo- 
sition ; that it is chiefly composed of fine siliceous sand with an 
average of about 10 per cent. of clay; that it naturally contains 
but little organic matter, which only develops sparingly with the 
denser vegetation of the reclaimed marsh; that it contains 
percentages of potash, lime, phosphoric acid, and nitrogen, 
approximating those of good virgin soils elsewhere, but with an 
unusually large amount of those substances in an immediately 
available form; and that the amount of common salt varies with 
the degree of reclamation. The above facts amply explain the 
fertility of the marshes, more especially when it is remembered 
that the chief, almost the sole, crops are grasses, which are not 
very trying to the soil, and to which the above combination of 
substances and conditions is particularly favorable. The lasting 
quality of the marshes is not thus explained, but that, as I have 
earlier shown, is without much doubt due to their depth and 
homogeneity, whereby the entire mass to the bottom is made 
available to the vegetation. These two sets of factors together, 
I believe, amply explain the agricultural value of the marshes. 
The composition of the marsh soil as a whole is doubtless very 
similar to that of the red sandstones of this region (with, per- 
haps, some salt added from sea-water), which constitute some of 
the richest upland soils in the provinces. The resemblance is 
% There is in the marsh country a popular misunderstanding of this subject. It 
is customary for the residents to say that the analyses of the soil which have been 
made reveal only clay and sand, with nothing to — its semeroige which they think 
doubt the 
must therefore be due to some cause still unknown Iness of the 
percentages of potash, lime, nitrogen, etc., mislead those eames with the chem- 
ro} ils. In fact the richest soils contain as a ru than one per cent. of 
each of those important substances, and quantities much over one per cent., so far 
from making the soil richer, actually injure it, for the roots of plants are unable to 
absorb any but very weak solutions of mineral substances. 
