1841.] for the North- Western Provinces. 789 



particular products was dependent, and might suggest experimental 

 inquiries as to the improvements of our native soils, the results of which 

 could scarcely fail to influence beneficially the general interests of the 

 country. It is to be remarked, that as certain portions of a soil are 

 withdrawn from it for the sustenance of the products reared upon it, 

 so its analysis, to aiford the most useful results, ought, I conceive, to be 

 made both before the seed was sown, and after the harvest had been 

 reaped. The results of simple analysis, however, although most im- 

 portant, are by no means the sole requisites for enabling us to com- 

 pare soils, the fertility and adaptations of these being the effects of 

 many conjoint causes ; as the physical aspect, the atmospheric relations 

 of temperature, moisture, exposure of the districts from which they 

 may be obtained, and also the nature of the deposits from, or the 

 chemical constituents of, the waters employed to irrigate them. In 

 illustration of this last mentioned point, it would I think be advisable, 

 that specimens of soils from districts in the North-Western Provinces 

 should be accompanied by others of the waters of irrigation, whether 

 derived from springs, rivers, wells, tanks, or artificial canals and water- 

 courses. An experimental investigation of them, both as regards the 

 matter held in simple mechanical suspension, or in chemical solution 

 by them, would always furnish us with most interesting information, 

 and in some instances, might enable us to detect the source either of 

 the peculiar fertility or sterility of the soils in certain localities. 

 Specimens of the various kinds of mineral manures employed in this 

 country, and also in other countries, from which it may be possible to 

 procure them, together with those of soils to which they may have 

 been applied with success, would complete, I think, the illustrations of 

 this department of the Museum ; and on being subjected to the same 

 process of analysis as in the preceding instances, might be expected to 

 add, in an important measure, to the information previously collected. 

 It will be observed how essential the aid of the chemical laboratory 

 recommended in a former paragraph, is to the effective illustration of 

 this department, since without it, those researches which promise to 

 cast light upon the principles by which the practical operations of 

 agriculture are influenced could never be undertaken ; nor could we 

 ever expect to replace the empirical rules, by which agriculturists are 

 now guided, and often guided wrong, by general laws induced from 



