106 
ANALYSIS OF SOILS. 
is a decided saline taste, the whole may be considered as soluble humus^ and 
the immediate fertility of the soil depends greatly on the quantity of it." 
The next step recommended, is to collect, dry, and separately weigh, the 
coarse grit, the finer sand, the earths in the tubes, the humus on the filter, and the 
matters evaporated in the dish. The total weights of all should nearly equal 
the gross weight of the dried earth previous to its being washed : but some loss is 
inevitable. 
" But the analysis is not yet completed, there may be a portion of carbonate of 
lime, in the form of sand, or of finely divided earth, mixed with the other earths. 
" To ascertain this, each portion, excepting the humus^ is put into a separate cup, 
and a little muriatic acid, diluted with four times its weight of water, is poured 
on it. If there is any efi'ervescence, it shows the presence of carbonate of lime ; 
diluted acid is then added gradually as long as the efi^ervescence is renewed by the 
addition. When this ceases, and the water continues to have an acid taste, more 
pure water is added, and each portion separately filtered, dried, and weighed. The 
loss of weight in each, gives the quantities of carbonate of lime dissolved by the 
muriatic acid, and which has passed with the water in the form of muriate of lime. 
The difi*erent weights being now collected, the result of the operations may be set 
down." 
The writer observes in a note, and very correctly, that the muriatic acid will 
dissolve some iron, and a portion more or less of alumina. This admission, and 
the very circumstance of employing muriatic acid, proves, beyond a doubt,, 
that chemical agency is essentially necessary to effect a good analysis. 
The detection and separation of the chalk (carbonate of lime) is the leading 
chemical process in ordinary analyses by re-agents, and without it there must be 
errors in the deductions. Still, however, the mechanical analysis by Mr. Rham 
will be found very instructive, and ought to be frequently resorted to ; we Avill not, 
therefore, insist farther upon the necessity of chemical agency. We have quoted 
very copiously, and ought not, perhaps, to proceed further ; but to do the author's 
object justice, we shall take the farther liberty to follow him in his recital of 
an actual experiment which was most likely conducted by himself : he says — 
"As an example of an analysis may be useful to those who desire to try the 
proposed method, we will add one actually made under very unfavourable circum- 
stances, and without any apparatus. 
" The only instruments at hand were scales and weights, of tolerable accuracy, 
three glasses, a foot long, and an inch and quarter in diameter, belonging to French 
lamps, a tin coffee-strainer, a piece of fine gauze, and a very fine cambric pocket- 
handkerchief. A little muriatic acid v/as obtained at the apothecary's. The soit 
to be analysed was taken from a piece of good arable land, on the slope of the Jura 
mountain, in Switzerland. Its specific gravity was 2.358 nearly. 500 grains of 
the dry soil were stirred in a pint of water, and set by in a basin. 
" To save time, 500 grains more of the same soil were weighed, after being dried 
