406 Oidlines of Horticultural Chemistry : — 



The analysis will then stand thus: — 



Water .... 30'5 



Stones and coarse Sand - - - 15" 5 



Vegetable Fibres - - - 5" 



Saline Matters - - - - 4*5 



Oxide of Iron - - - 2*5 



Carbonate of Lime - - - 17*5 



Decomposing Matter, destructible by Heat - 7* 



Alumina - - - - 15* 



Silica ----- 102-5 



200- 



The first watery lixiviation, employed to obtain the saline 

 matter, may now be evaporated to dryness ; if of a brown 

 colour, it is chiefly vegetable extract ; if of a whitish colour, it 

 is principally saline, and probably consists of chloride of 

 sodium (common salt), with the admixture of a little sulphate 

 of lime (gypsum). 



The above mode of analysis I have made as simple as 

 possible, and it requires no other apparatus than a set of grain 

 scales and weights, a little sulphuric and muriatic acids, and 

 some prussiate of potash, the whole of which, sufficient for 

 examining every soil upon a large estate, may be obtained 

 for thirty shillings. 



In the above are no processes requiring adroitness in the 

 manipulation, extreme nicety in the operation, or the prac- 

 tised eye of science and experience to conduct. All is simple, 

 requiring nothing but the employment of the ordinary care- 

 fulness, and the common sense, of the experimenter. 



The portion of soil which it is proposed to analyse, should 

 be taken at about three inches from the surface. Neither 

 should the surface soil only be examined, but the substratum 

 also. For it often will occur that the subsoil is of a better 

 staple than that which reposes on it ; or is of a quality that 

 is capable of correcting some deficiency in it. Thus a light 

 silicious soil will often lie upon a stratum abounding in 

 alumina, which, by digging or trenching, may be brought to 

 the surface and mingled with it. 



The foregoing plan of analysis, it must be observed, is not 

 one so particular as a practised chemist would pursue; but it 

 is one easy, and capable of affording all the facts usually 

 required to be known by a cultivator: viz. the moisture- 

 retaining power of a soil ; the quantity of soluble and decom- 

 posable matter it contains ; and the proportions of its earthy 

 constituents. 



It has been urged by some that a great deal of information 

 may be compendiously obtained, by ascertaining the specific 



