SOILS. 



57 



loose, and requires an artificial intermixture of clay. It pre- g^^^^^^J^® 

 sents all its characters along the Erie canal, between the Lit- 

 tle Falls and the Genesee river. It frequently affords locali- 

 ties of vegetable mould, which may be advantageously carted 

 upon other soils. As it is generally in narrow slips or small 

 fields, the surrounding grounds may receive its benefits with 

 but little carting. 



6. Ultimate diluvion. This seems to have been a thin uni- Excellent 



alone or 



versal mantle, covering the earth in the first ages after the de- mixed, 

 luge. It still remains undisturbed in the most ancient forests. 

 But in all cultivated grounds, it has been intermixed with the 

 underlaying soils. In its undisturbed state, it is the soil to 

 which the word loam is most properly applied. Alone, it is a 

 durable and rich soil, excepting where sand predominates^ 

 Mixed with other soils, it is always useful. 



7. Post-diluvion. Near the sources of the waters, which Variable, 

 deposited this soil, it is always too coarse and destitute of any 

 fertilizing quality — remote from these sources, it is fine and 



rich — midway between these extremities, it is middling in cha- 

 racter. But post-diluvion is, from the nature of its origin, ex- 

 ceedingly variable — every locality depending on the deposites 

 from which the waters flowed. 



8. Analluvion. This kind of soil is pernetuaUy formino- by Depends 



. ^ t , / for fertility 



the dismtegration of rocks, whose surfaces are exposed. Its on the rocks 



character depends entirely on the constituents of the rock. ^®"®**^* 

 Therefore argillite and argillaceous gray wacke produce, by dis- 

 integration, clay soils. Rubble wacke, granular quartz, and 

 other quartzose rocks, produce sandy soil. Hornblende rocks 

 produce a rich intermixture.* Limestone rocks, particularly 

 argillaceous limestone, as the geodiferous limerock, produce 

 a rich calcareous and alluminous soil. 



* Dr. E. Jamea observes, (see Long's Expedition, vol. 2, p. 402) that in the 

 midst of the Great Desert, near the Reeky Mountains, where all was " brown 

 and desolate, as if recently ravaged by fire," the hills of greenstone trap, 

 which consist essentially of hornblende^ were covered with a green turf from 

 their bases to their summits. 



8 



