394 . Wells on the Soils of the Scioto Valley, Ohio. 
capable of much change of shape by contraction and dilata- 
tion, these differences can never serve as the basis of Species ; 
which would also be true from the fact, that, having no indi- 
viduality of their own, there is necessarily an absence of per- 
manent type-characteristics. 
Arr. V.— Notes and Observations on the Analysis and 
Character of the Soils of the Scioto Valley, Ohio, with 
some general Considerations respecting the Subject of Soil 
Analyses. Read before the Boston Society of Natural 
History, March 3d, 1852. By Davin A. WELLS. 
Is the spring of 1851, I was intrusted by the Secretary of 
the Ohio State Board of Agriculture, Prof. W. W. Mather, 
with the office of analyzing and reporting upon the soils of 
that State, and under his direction have executed a series of 
analyses of soils taken from Pike County, Scioto Valley. For 
the purpose of showing the character and chemical composi- 
tion of these fertile soils, as well as, to some extent, the 
method adopted for their examination, I submit a few of the 
analyses above referred to. | 
The first analysis to which I would call attention is that of 
a soil taken from the East bank of the Scioto, in Pike County. 
This ground is occasionally overflowed, and has been cleared 
and cultivated for about eighteen years successively in corn; 
and yields, with ordinary culture, from seventy to eighty 
bushels per acre. The average crop has not sensibly dimi- 
nished since it was first cleared. The timber growth origin 
ally on this ground when cleared, was honey-locust, black 
walnut, pawpaw, box elder, white ash, elm, mulberry, and 
buckeye. | 
"The color of this soil when dry, was of a dark brown, or 
