] 



:vi INTRODUCTION. 



The above facts* and observations may likewise shew in some measure, one out of many of 

 the very useful practical purposes, to which the results of a chemical exammation of soils may 



be made subservient. 



The subsoil is of as much importance, in determining the fitness, or unfitness, of a soil for 



the growth of the superior grasses, as the nature of the surface soil ; and, indeed, when it 



considered that the latter may have its nature completely changed, under favourable circus, 

 stances, with little trouble and at a moderate expence, while the nature of the subsoil can only 

 be partially corrected under any circumstances, it may therefore be said to be of the first im. 



portance in this enquiry, s, ;, 



In the following details of experiments, the nature of the subsoil is therefore mentioned, and 

 more particularly in instances where one soil has been cultivated on different subsoils. 



The most productive old pasture lands consist of soils of an intermediate quality as to mols. 

 ture and dryness, varying in the degree of fertility according to the manner of management, or 

 the frequency of bay craps, and the exclusion of top-dressing with manure ; but the grasses 

 which constitute their produce are the same. Dry elevated sandy soils, however long they 

 may have been under pasture and superior management, produce a diiFerent class of grassesof 



inferior merits. The produce of peat bogs, and low wet soils likewise, for the most part, con- 

 sist of grasses which differ from those above-mentioned, in regard to value as well as botanical 

 distinctions. The respective merits and comparative value, therefore, of the different grasses 

 natural to these particular situations, will probably be more readily and conveniently seen, if 

 every species be considered under its own particular soil, and compared with those that are 

 naturally combined with it. With this end in view, the details of the experiments are arranged 

 under four heads, viz. 1st, Grasses, and other plants, adapted for permanent pasture on soils of 

 the first quality ; 2d, Grasses, and other plants, natural to dry sandy soils; 3d, Grasses, and 

 other plants, natural to irrigated meadows and low damp soils ; 4th Grasses, with such other 



plants as now appear, from the results of experiments made upon them, to be adapted to the 

 alternate husbandry. 



* The Author has the pleasure to inform those Gentlemen Nvho may desire to examine the soils that have here been submit 

 ted to anal^^sis, that neat cabinet .specimens of the xvhole may be had of Mr. Sowerbj, at his Museum of Natural History, Mead 

 place, Lambeth. 



