THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



179 



substances to the land, and the presence of lime- 

 stone quarries of this very form of lime, the mag- 

 nesia in considerable quantities in a belt of coun- 

 try parallel with the South-West Mountains, and 

 about 3 miles distant, affords ample opportunities 

 to try the experiment. Several persons have made 

 this trial, but not one of all that we know, has 

 seen such decided results as to encourage an ap- 

 plication of lime on a large scale; whilst with one, 

 perhaps two, exceptions, the experiments have' 

 been thought a perfect failure. We know of one 

 case, where two gentlemen owning land of this 

 character, purchased a tract of limestone land, to 

 improve their farms by means of the lime, but one 

 of them abandoned his farm for the west, and the 

 other has never manifested any extraordinary dili- 

 gence in the undertaking. Certain it is, that lime 

 does not here produce the magical effect that it 

 does on the lands of Tide-water Virginia ; and the 

 man who would gain a reputation for prudence and 

 judgment, by going in debt for lime there, would 

 lose a similar reputation, if he possessed it, by a 

 similar course up here. 



Virginia Militaey Institute, ) 

 Lexington, March 14, 1854. ) 



F. G. Ruffin, Esq,., 



My Dear Sir, — Enclosed, I send you the results 

 that I have obtained, in the analysis of two sam- 

 ples of soil from your farm. No. 1 is the specimen 

 taken from the lowest portion of the field, No. 2 is 

 from the highert. 



Composition of No. 1. 

 Water and organic matter, the latter contain- 



ing a small proportion of ammonia, 11.455 

 Insoluble silica and silicates, insoluble in 



dilute acids, 56.770 

 Oxide of iron, 18.460 

 Alumina, 12.030 

 Lime, 0.087 

 Magnesia, 0.085 

 Sulphuric acid, 0.002 

 Phosphoric acid — decided traces, the exact 



proportion not determined — chlorine, traces 



Potassa and soda in great abundance, the 

 proportions were not determined; they 

 are, however, about the same as found 

 for No. 2. 



Soluble silica not determined. 



Composition of No. 2. 

 Organic matter and water, the former con- 



taining a little ammonia. 13.360 



Silica, about the same as in No. 1, 



Oxide of iron, 18.460 



Alumina, 12.620 



Lime, 0.050 



Magnesia, 0.068 



Sulphuric acid, 0.002 



Phosphoric acid as in No. 1, 



Potassa, 0.508 



Sada, 0.109 



In addition to the above quantitative examina- 

 tions, I submitted samples of each of the soils to 

 the action of pure water, for the purpose of ascer- 

 taining whether it would dissolve appreciable 



quantities of these various constituents, and thus 

 render them available to growing crops. The wa- 

 ter was allowed to stand upon the soil for* some 48 

 hours, and was then drawn off; in a fluid ounce of 

 the water, I was enabled to detect distinct traces 

 of lime, magnesia, potassa, soda, sulphuric acid, phos- 

 phoric acid and chlorine; and on evaporating several 

 ounces, and applying the appropriate test, I was 

 enabled to detect ammonia. 



I determined the organic matter and water, by 

 the same operation, and hence the proportions are 

 not given separately ; to have determined them 

 separately, would have consumed time to no pur- 

 pose, I conceive. I would remark that there was 

 no inconsiderable proportion of water present, al- 

 though the soil had been in a warm dry room for 

 months before it was analyzed. 



The proportion of silicous matter is unusually 

 small; soils usually contain from 70 to 85 or 90 

 per cent, of silica and insoluble silicates, and very 

 few indeed contain so little as 60 per cent. See 

 Johnston's Agricultural Chemistry, Norton's, &c. 



Yours, however, contains less than 60 per cent., 

 a fact which goes far to explain the peculiar me- 

 chanical condition of your soil. 



The proportion of oxide of iron is so large as al- 

 most to surpass belief. It has long been known 

 that the Albemarle " red lands " get their color 

 from the presence of oxide of iron in considerable 

 quantity ; but I do not presume that any one con- 

 ceived it possible that they should contain so large 

 an amount of this substance. 



The per centage of alumina is also very large, 

 but its usual effects of giving closeness and plas- 

 ticity to the soil are, necessarily, very much modi- 

 fied by the presence of so large a proportion of 

 oxide of iron. 



From the general character of the rocks which 

 underlie the red lands of your county, and from 

 which the soils are formed, I felt confident that the 

 proportion of lime was far higher than I find it to 

 be ; I still think that soils from other parts of your 

 farm, and from other red lands in the county, 

 would yield a larger per centage of this substance. 

 The proportion seems to be almost too small to be 

 compatible with the well known general fertility of 

 your soil ; but when we consider that, in making 

 the analysis, all pebbles and pieces of undecom- 

 posed stone were rejected, and that the soil abounds 

 in these, we can readily understand how their dis- 

 integration will keep up a constant supply of lime, 

 magnesia, &c, while an analysis would detect very 

 little as actually present in the soil at once. In 

 the presence of so large a per centage of organic 

 matter, the application of lime to your land would 

 naturally suggest itself; but as your soil, to say 

 the least of it, is a peculiar one, I would simply 

 suggest that you make a fair trial of lime upon a 

 small portion of the field analyzed. 



In relation to phosphoric acid, I was enabled to 

 detect its presence distinctly, but the proportion is 

 very small, less than can be gotten from some soils 

 by simple digestion in water. I did not attempt to 

 determine the exact proportion. 



The sulphuric acid is put down at the very low- 

 est figure ; its presence is readily detected in the 

 soil, but the proportion is so small that it can 

 scarcely be called more than a trace. 



The proportions of the alkalies potassa and soda, 

 are unusually large — at least that of potassa is ; it 

 is rare that potassa exceeds 0.2 per cent, in a soil, 

 while in yours it exceeds 0.5. Besides, the decom- 

 posing rocks in the soil are making constant addi- 



