PART II. 



AGRICULTURAL REPORT 



1. GENERAL -PART; PRINCIPLES OF RATIONAL 

 AGRICULTURE. 



A. SOILS. 



345. What is a soil ? — It might appear superfluous, in speaking to an 

 agricultural public, to give any explanation or definition of the term " soil." 

 Yet the word, is sometimes used in a manner somewhat indefinite, as though it 

 necessarily implied a certain physical condition or " texture" of the material. 

 I have been frequently told of the occurrence of " soils" twenty feet or more 

 below the surface ; and more frequently still, it is said that there is " no soil" 

 in some thickly wooded, or grassy region, simply because the surface stratum may 

 not happen to be suitable for cultivation. — Properly speaking, in its most general 

 acceptation, the term soil implies the surface stratum of earthy material, as far 

 as the roots of plants reach; no matter whether it be sand, or potters clay, or, 

 as in most cases, a mixture of the two. 



346. Now, since the roots of the different kinds of plants penetrate to very 

 various depths, and since, moreover, in most cases a rapid change in the character 

 of material takes place, as we proceed from the surface downward ; it is evident 

 that according to the above definition of the term soil, it may imply a great 

 many different average materials, according to the plant to whose soil we refer ; 

 even in one and the same spot. When we speak of the soil with reference to 

 Bermuda Grass, we do not necessarily include anything more than a surface 

 layer 2% to 3 inches in depth ; whereas, in alluding to most forest trees, we 

 necessarily take into consideration a layer of several feet, from the surface 

 downwards. Nay, in the latter case it may happen that the " soil" thus spoken 

 of is quite independent, in its character, of that which in cultivation would form 

 the arable soil of our field ; which may be entirely above the stratum in which 

 the roots of the trees arc fixed. 



