6 ADVANTAGES OF KENTUCKY. 



The following article by Dr. Robert Peter, on the "The Excellence of 

 the Soils of Kentucky," is designed to form part of a publication, 

 descriptive of the resources of this State, for distribution among the 

 farmers of Great Britain and Ireland. The long experience and extended 

 reputation of Dr. Peter as an agricultural chemist, united with his expe- 

 rience as a practical agriculturist, entitle his opinions on the subject 

 treated to great weight. 



ON THE GENERAL EXCELLENCE OF THE SOILS OF KEN- 

 TUCKY, &c, &c. 



BY ROBERT PETER, M. I) , CHEMIST TO STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, &C, &C. 



In the chemical study of the soils of Kentucky, for which the writer 

 enjoyed a very large opportunity in the analyses by him of about seven 

 hundred different samples from over all the geological formations of the 

 State and from most of its counties, he has been deeply impressed with 

 the fact, that while a great body of them, covering a large area of the 

 surface of the State, are exceptionally rich, fertile, and practically dura- 

 ble, there are none which would prove irreclaimably sterile under a judi- 

 cious use of the modern appliances of agriculture. 



Professor N. S. Shaler, late Director of the Kentucky Geological 

 Survey, who had made an extensive reconnoissance all over the State, 

 remarks in one of his Reports, that out of its nearly 40,000 square miles 

 of area "all are inhabitable except that which is under water," and that 

 even in the hilly region on the eastern border, on the flanks of the great 

 Allegheny range, there is very little waste of surface — not a square 

 mile — because of contour, and that the only really infertile soil is that 

 on the small strips formed on the outcrop of the conglomerate on the 

 edge of the coal-measures. No State, he adds, having so much mineral- 

 wealth, possesses so large an area of fertile lands. 



Many causes have contributed to this fortunate result, and first: 



Geological Causes. — The rock strata underlying the soil have been 

 formed in very remote geological ages, and mostiy under deep waters 

 remote from its shores, out of earthy materials very finely divided. 

 Only occasionally do we find, in coarse sandstone or conglomerate 

 rocks, evidences of the violent action of the waters on shallow surfaces. 

 Under the deep ocean which covered this portion of the earth's surface, 

 when the ancient limestones and shales were formed which now underlie 

 our soils, the mighty circulation of the waters caused by the greater 



