Morton's Nature and Property of Soils. 151 



trees : its scentless flowers appear in June." Roots long, flex- 

 uose, dead white. Leaf solitary, thick, tongue-shaped. Flower 

 with all its parts of a bright vermilion red or orange. 



Art. II. On the Nature and Property of Soils; their Connexion 

 •with the geological Formation on which they rest ; the best Means of 

 permanently increasing their Productiveness ; and on the Rent and 

 Prof ts of Agriculture. By John Morton, Small Svo, pp. 235. 



The subject of soils has never yet been treated chemically or 

 geologically, in such a way as to be of much real use to the cul- 

 tivator. After all that has been written on the subject, what 

 scientific gardener or farmer (Mr. Gorrie, for example, who 

 unites both characters), if he were sent over an estate, to select 

 the soil and situation most suitable for a kitchen-garden, or, an 

 orchard, or that which would produce the greatest return in corn 

 of any kind, would not form his judgment on the kind and con- 

 dition of the plants growing on it, rather than on digging up 

 samples of the soil for inspection or experiment. Taking a 

 broad general view of the subject, soils are the earths or rusts of 

 rocks mixed with organic matter ; and, as there are a great many 

 different kinds of rocks in ever}^ country, there must, necessarily, 

 be a great many different kinds of soils : for example, some in 

 which the earth is almost entirely composed of what may be 

 called the simple rocks, such as limestone, sandstone, or slate- 

 stone ; others, in which the earths are composed almost entirely 

 of compound rocks, such as granite, schist, &c. Now, in ex- 

 amining the surface of a country in which these and other rocks 

 abound, we shall find the same grasses, trees, and other plants, 

 growing on all of them. We shall find elms, oaks, grass, docks, 

 and thistles, and hundreds of other plants, equally vigorous in 

 soils formed of the debris of granite, limestone, sandstone, basalt, 

 &c. It is clear, therefore, that the vigour of the plant does not 

 depend on the kind of earth of which the soil is composed. 

 But soils, relatively to plants, are liable to be affected in various 

 other ways : by the state of mechanical division of the earths 

 composing them ; by the quantity of organic matter they con- 

 tain ; by their fitness for holding water in suspension, or allowing 

 it to escape ; by their inclination to the sun ; and by other simi- 

 lar circumstances. All these circumstances may be readily 

 judged of b}'^ an experienced cultivator, from the plants growing 

 on the soil ; and, therefore, we conclude that the state of mecha- 

 nical division, the quantity of organic matter, and the condition 

 relatively to water and to heat, are the only important points for 

 a cultivator to consider relatively to soils ; and, again, we say that 

 all these may be more readily judged of by the plants growing on 



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