330 SOIL OF THE TACONIC DISTRICT. 



manifest in our analysis of the soils of the Wheat and Taconic districts : they differ, and 

 those differences can not be accounted for by supposing that thej are due to local accidents. 

 Then again there is a similarity in the soils of the same geological regions, and this 

 similarity is nol due to accident, but to those general influences which have prevailed and 

 operated over a widely extended territory. 



h is this uniformity in the c position of the New- York soils, which has led its on from 



step to step, and kept ns at work in this pari of the survey ; and as this fact could not be 

 known at the outset, but must develop itself only in the progress of the work, it will 

 appear as a reason why some things have been omitted and others performed. 



We may now proceed to state in detail those more thorough analyses, by which those 

 interested will he aide to compare the composition of the soils of the several districts with 

 • '.i«li other, and percei\ e the foundation upon which the pursuits in husbandry receive their 

 special impulses ; for the husbandry of a country can go only in certain channels with 

 much profit. Especially is this the case with the direct products of the soil ; and the im- 

 pulse which stalls ii. and impels it forward in this channel, is derived mainly from the 

 composition of the soil. The local inlluence^if small markets affects merely the minor 

 products, or those which are derived from high garden culture. 



We shall first lay before our loaders the constitution of the soil of the Taconic district. 

 By reference t" the map, the extent of this district will he seen : but for a more perfect 

 understanding of its character, we must refer to the geological structure, and the peculiar 

 influence which diluvial action has exerted on this territory. 



Our attention has been directed to the soils of Rensselaer and Washington counties. 

 The first analysis is of a soil remarkable for the production of maize, and which has been 

 cultivated thirty or forty years. It is in the south part of Iloosic, on high ground, and 

 underlaid by the laconic slate. The analysis was made upon a dry soil, which lost on 

 drying at 300 3 , 4' 40, which is set down as water, hut not reckoned as an element. 



A1SA1.I US. 



First process. Second process. 



Orsranic matter 9-31 00-00 



Mlicates and silex 77-00 70-87 



Peroxide of iron and alumina 11-58 4-50 



Lime 1-31 1-63 



nesia 0-25 0-00 



99-45 77-00 



Soluble silex 2-12 



Phosphates 1-25 



3-37 



This soil is remarkable for its amount of vegetable matter, of soluble silex and the phos- 

 phates, especially whi a I iken in connexion with the fact that it has been cultivated so 



