21—1852. ] THE AGRICULTURAL, GAZETTE. 331 
hat if there tentional unfairness, may, | interest in tracing these evidences of the former Before the singular property of soils in reference to 
. n of the difference “in| pation of the land for ie nang of corn, do they, like t the | the salts of r e r, been observed, it was usually 
2 already been manifest, and at the same time, if he | gigantie Druidical re in this country, the rt idered that the soil was an inert, dead mass; that it 
iate our meaning, and is 80 3 may tend | gigantic structures in n South 1 the eina net- | did indeed possess certain substances essential for the 
N to lessen it henceforth. orks in the East, &c., are monuments of past history 8 of plants, but that it was principally as a place 
We would say, then, that when we had commenced a | which, with nid lost characters of the writings of pas jz or the roots of plants to find attachment to, and in 
matic and laborious experimental Nee eg acs into | days, stand up to tell us of a past condition of the coun- | which the various salts and compounds of manure might 
page manne of agricultural practices, it very soon | try and the Wut of which EA know sip 42 wi Mega h | be presented to them—where also changes might take 
i ; ' 8 Aps ame y wer desl 3 $e more oce asion we shall find to place between those compounds either internally or 
of lan Ne yee he fee ape ae of eonfess ery u n knowledge o of the da, In | by atmospheric influence, find not as being absolutely 
p ture in the treatment of this subject, and my inherent, of | tbe ants surface, Ie ontinually fin find ox in a distinct way connected with the preparation 
that such plan and classification were absolutely essen-|marks of former genera cultivation which point to a of woy Aegan 27am that “me soil was to be regarded. 
tial to any anren view and. grasp of the almost | period in England’s history, oF an agriculture was prae- | It v ied that 9 and 
infinite accum n of individual fact s arising { from dif- tised with a skill that has afterwards been lost; and, as ris | had looked to he ‘the sil to dende vegetation its 
ference of erop aud r. Bailey Denton calls on me to give my reasons Necessary silica, its indispen osphates or alkalies; 
on the one hand, and from Jocal -circumstances ens for dating this v. ie time .of oe Ropang, I will | but there was, be believed, Tittle or no idea of how this. 
"of ; 
climate, and other influ t ed | endeavour to do We know, for certainty, | was to be effected. habit of reasoning 
to 1 say, ee e F e that the pastures 10 which 1 allude tive eli in Grass | on the action of different salts upon e tea por in the 
gathering of miscellaneous items into a few main divi- from time N and ha a populata N its | soil ae bai og e ratari a kn ra “ge their 
sions or gro ich, . sati ily want of corn become less ess as we go in | use ow ; dus the experi- 
Audted, d . eee e e, e ee English history; and we find the marks “of cultivation | ments that had been made of growing plants in different 
out, might again be subdivided, and so on, d ing | belong to a very distant time, for across these l ergin solutions ! how constantly had the results been quoted 
from the general to the ular, till the individual and | may be still traced the lines of furrows cut asunder by and applied to 4 Lee able and e À expected action of the 
loeal facts would ves reeeive their due share of | ancient highways, and they are generally seen extending same salts when added to the soil! Sulphate of ammonia 
attention. It is obvious that such a classification as is in directions 3 of existing boundaries. Of all or nitrate of potash, when used as manure, and incorpo- 
here supposed, might be adopted, either having reference | this an instance is to be found in sb ange Fores, and | rated with the soil, were still viewed as sulphate of 
to certain prominent elements of rotation generally, or about the park. There, although the d has not | ammonia and riba i potash ; no change was expected 
to the influences of soil, climate, or other circumstanees ; required to be landed up, the ancient ploug i ida to occur to them, h ti 
and it is also obvious, that upon whichever of these and divisions may still be traced upon the park d now | What the plant waite 0 with these 8 o ihe 
i ms our grouping was ve the > other classes occu pied by gigantic ancient 9 which are hollow and | appropriate the parts that i wai nted, an get ri a 
of n deerepitude, from e xtreme d age—trees that have which was unnecessary and o ectionable ; su ces in 
to take a place to some extent but secondar Upon eee centuries y every possible { form. of combination, and in solution of 
mature lace o somn e then desided, and i do — ow to reach their resent decay. To What page in PENA every an a and constantly varying strength, were 
decide, that the 8 teristic ele — of rotation are we to look for the cultivation of this land, and a state supposed come with equal welcome to the 
should constitute the basis of our main or broadest clas- of civilisation and security that such employment of he growing pit which of course ‘had the fullest power 
sification ; and that local and other seco: condary influences | Soil points to! and when can we suppose Ava Pop of to compound and recompound according ; 
should _ guide us in any subdivisional treatment of the man can have called for such general cultivation? My | Stances and the necessity of its requirements. This, 
subject. answer is—to the egal period 7 oe Roman dominionof Mr. Way believed, was the general impression —an 
But Mr. Russell, ha: aving chiefly given his attention to Britain, when her powerful sway had given pa of impression —— confined to the 8 e A i 
the effects of climatic circumstances on agricultural internal peace, wr, had called forth the cultivation of | Shared b 
practice, looks at the subject, we would submit, through the useful arts and sciences, and of which we have fi special study. elena however, it became necessary y to 
this medium, too exclusively ; ; and sin sinee he finds clearly remains to those times of luxury and repose which take another vi these matters; it had been shown 
enough that ery t Its are described.as having been fatal to the martial spirit that most, if not tal, the salts. of manure an 
upon the individual e within our respective | of the Britons, and to have laid the country open to immediate and radical change directly they were incor- 
groups, and even according to their variations upon the barbarous invasions when Roman protection was with- | porated with the soil; that sulphate of ammonia, for 
P 3 i 
same individual member; — A therefore drawn, The open field tillage, the diffused popula- instance, directly it reached the soil, was no longer to be 
classification altogether, er, preferring rather 3 each tion, the civilisation, the call for general eairt on with found in it, no longer existed there as such ; that 3 
individual fact, the result of elimatie ci the security and occupation of the peaple in tillage, of | Which washed it in, would not wash it ont again; that 
rately, and on its own 3 The result of a i a which we have such indisputable evidences, could not Salts of the same base and of most other bases un 
course would be that we should) be left t a at our eye | have existed whilst the Tmn Ai was the prey of Picts similar changes, and that pa ie te sere p yarad 
wearily over the almost illimitable space of individual and Scots, of Danes and Norma: It wa: m- under ae sri in which they w be presen 
and miscellaneous agricultural fact, without a resting- | the ever-shifting Government of the * chy, nor by pom vege etable. It wo uld bes en that 2 21 se 
place or any broad lines of demarcation, or any promi- after the Norman conquest, w barons found security fh idle spectator o t too 
nent centres around which other points would naturally only in their castles; but if we go back to the Roman ; that i t was not e Teng meeting: -place for far the roots 
arrange themselves. In fact, looking at the subject from | times, we alight on a ‘state of affairs that at once admits of plata and the food they were to grow upon, but that 
the same point of view. or centre, Mr. Russell, on the one of it, and wants that called fo The occupa f | it was actually the pinta: of the plant; or he might go 
and logi 1 ly four centuries. We are told — i and s * nhs on dun ce ac er 
R with individual facts, and with climat they at first oppressed the natives employin 22 r im animais 15 periormen. 
his teles mi ike e as OE ery p gt a pa works eee 
the —— i Meek him too much one by one; we, | Which had referen nce to the general occu of Fa digesting ¢ the food of plants, is position coul a 
on the other hand, have, from one common centre, | Country for cultivation, and it was at the tte 4 period | © establis ithe believed that itfollowed mamke 
tem to throw ar them and draw them within, of their dominion, as we are informed by their his- deduction from the facts which he had to to bring before: 
the ape nr of rotation, aud then to divide our torians, that they drew large supplies of grain from the th 
eirele into so many sections, within each of which we island, and of which we have such strong proof in their | # 
— 4 ad varied facts of agriculture arrange them- | indiscriminately calling both the Isle ef Man and of | 
selves more naturally and with less of intersection than | „ the > APART of the Western provinces. 
were the elements of climate or of any other influence Here, a mpun of the eountry; em- | 
taken as our guide. J. B. : eee of., “on consum for 
To be continued.) ; I 10 se ing for. ‘the genera pn ace of | Pro 
* to tillage, which certain 8 t be recom- 
So ced hapa the condition, 41 — wants P® 
s left “ite 1 might | becomes 
Adultérated Guano. — Having been kindly supplied ° Aend this 1 
i 25 NG sees weed 1 considerably ex mc this letter r byg in other examples 
with a sample of the adultera Ì guano, exposed by Mr: | of cultivation fou — ee ver our commons, | 9Y eas 
Claranee's letter in your Pi. of the br inst., I sub- | and high wi the — 1 eae also enlarge on the con- 7 
mitted he urning to a red heat. This sequence the Romans attached to the possession of the b : e l 3 ee 
immediately 3 the imposture, as I believe will island, the large forces they kept here, the evidences of intermediate compounds, which ultimately unite with the 
always be the in such adulterations. © pure civilisationen luxury Shey left behind, whieh can only | OXYgen (of the air, and id, ammonia, 
guano burns toa "a viib ash like that of a good cigar, | be ac yes or by supposing their receipts from the 
the earth and clay in the adulterated burns to a red or A pe e proportion aas important, and that z 
ora 8 3 this is a tes one may sig dee wer be no 4 g But what could they 
0 f on ladle, or tobacco pipe. have drawn from I but corn ? and pplies 
g 28 $ n several samples, and it has never As em were indeed i 5 
2 8 re. five millions of inhabitants, and all her principal towns, ammon 
Roman Cultivation still visible on the | wene. fed for turies with foreign corn drawn from 
Surface g fgit of our old Pastres. — That the greater | her — 2 —— aig Britain we know at 
ee e present pastures of England have at some ranked high. 2 * 3, Frederick’s-place, Old | 
ut time been in 80% ey be 2 by every one Jg ‘ewry; London, May 
i amin id es and 
Sotieties. 
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. 
LECTURE ON SOILS, 
ROFEssOR Way, Consulting Chemist to the aig 
delivered to the Member: rein the Council 
eee ety, the following lecture “On the Absorptive Power 
f Soils,” on Wedne 9 i e 28ih of April ; Mr. Pusey 
a eee, in mee: 
Mr. Wax comm — 1 his lecture by saying that he 
82 
