318  On  the  Power  of  Soils  to  absorb  Manure. 
precipitated  unchanged,  or  in  the  state  of  insoluble  pigments 
(technically  known  as  “lakes”),  by  mere  mixture  with  white 
clay. 
Neither  to  the  action  of  capillarity  then,  or  to  that  of  oxida- 
tion, are  we  to  attribute  the  property  of  soils  to  retain  the 
mineral  bases  and  animal  and  vegetable  ingredients  of  manure. 
The  action  is  one  indeed  sui  generis,  and  in  an  agricultural  point 
of  view  of  much  greater  importance  and  interest  than  either  of 
those  mentioned.  We  shall  now  proceed  to  describe  the  experi- 
ments that  have  been  made,  merely  premising  that  the  present 
paper  is  to  be  regarded  simply  as  a report  of  progress,  and  does 
not  profess  to  give  more  than  an  outline  of  the  facts,  leaving  the 
results  of  further  investigation  to  be  described  in  future  contri- 
butions. 
Two  of  the  soils  frequently  alluded  to  were  employed  in  the 
outset  merely  from  motives  of  convenience,  as  they  happened  to 
be  in  the  laboratory  at  the  time  : the  one  of  these  is  a red  soil  from 
Mr.  Pusey’s  estate  in  Berkshire,  the  other  a loam  from  Mr.  Hux- 
table’s  farm  on  the  chalk  hills  of  Dorset.  It  may  become  a point 
of  importance  at  a future  time  to  ascertain  how  far  the  absorptive 
power  of  a given  soil  bears  relation  to  its  known  capabilities  of 
bearing  crops,  and  the  principle  may  happily  become  available  as 
a means  of  classification  for  soils ; but  in  the  first  inquiries  it 
seemed  quite  immaterial  what  soils  were  employed.  One  of  the 
above  soils,*  that  from  Mr.  Pusey,  was  sent  to  the  laboratory  to  be 
* This  soil  was  sent  to  Mr.  Way  as  the  only  unmanured 
specimen  remaining  of  my  own  farm,  and  I may  mention  that 
the  analysis  singularly  confirmed  the  anticipation  which  on 
chemical  principles  I had  formed  as  to  the  result.  The  land, 
which  had  been  badly  farmed,  though  it  bore  wheat  and  barley 
after  such  dung  as  it  got  for  the  wheat,  had  produced  no  turnips, 
the  dung  being  worn  out  in  the  fourth  year  of  the  course,  and  next 
to  none  being  given  to  the  root-crop.  With  superphosphate  and 
peatashes  I produced  luxuriant  crops  of  turnips;  the  former  sup- 
plying phosphoric  and  the  latter  sulphuric  acid.  This  led  me 
to  suspect  that  the  soil  was  deficient  in  both  those  ingredients,  and 
Mr.  Way’s  analysis  shows  that  it  is  totally  wanting  in  both.  Mr. 
Way’s  conjecture  that  the  addition  of  gypsum  might  sometimes 
be  beneficial  is  borne  out  by  the  fact,  as  peatashes,  which  contain, 
it,  are  beneficial  on  this  farm  both  to  clover  and  turnips,  both 
plants  containing  sulphuric  acid.  It  is  perhaps  material  to 
remark,  with  regard  to  the  power  of  the  soil  to  absorb  manure, 
that  the  specimen  submitted  to  Mr.  Way  was  in  a natural  state. 
After  its  condition  is  raised  its  absorptive  power  might  not  be  so 
high. — Pii.  Pusey. 
