60 
THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA 
appeal to the County Coniniissioners of the county in 
which the town is situated, and the decision of the Com- 
missioners on the appeal will be final. 
"All of the provisions limiting the rights of the abut- 
ting proprietors in these trees are designed solely with 
a view to the public welfare and enjoyment, and do not 
affect the proprietor's rights as against private parties 
not acting as representing the public. The public good 
is superior to the private right, and even the proprietor 
himself cannot injure these so-called public trees which 
he owns ; but on the other hand, when other private 
parties, merely as such, desire to act in any way affecting 
such trees (as, for example, a telephone company in 
stringing its wires), they must first obtain the consent 
of the proprietor, since they are engaged in a private 
enterprise primarily, and they must in addition obtain 
the consent of the Tree Warden, to insure against an 
interference with the public enjoyment of the trees 
affected by the enterprise. — The Guide to Nature. 
ANALYZING SOILS 
'T*EXT books classify "clayey soil," "loam," "light sandy 
■*• soil," and the like and the average person looks at 
his lawn, which to him is only plain "ground" and is quite 
at a loss to know its real description. 
The principal ingredients of soil are sand, clay, gravel, 
and humus ; and it is the proportion in which these are 
mixed that determines the kind of soil. 
A loam, as far as plants are concerned, writes Leonard 
Macomber, in Tlie Golf Course, is a workable and a most 
digestible mixture of clay, sand, silt and humus, but when 
one or another of the ingredients predominates, it gives 
its name to the loam — viz. : sandy loam or clay loam. 
A sandy soil, by adding humus, can be converted into 
a sandy loam, and a heavy clay soil by adding sand, peat, 
leafmould, and often lime is necessary, can be converted 
into a clayey loam. 
Aside from the feel of soil and its appearance, there 
are mechanical tests which are not so difficult to apply. 
First get a fair sample of the soil from several differ- 
ent places (say a quart). Weigh this and put down the 
weight. Next put the soil in a pan at the back of the 
stove and let it stand until thoroughly dry, but it must 
not be allowed to burn. Weigh again and the differ- 
ence between this and the first weight is the amount of 
water the soil holds. 
Now put it in a hot oven for three or four hours ; then 
weigh again. The humus will have burnt and the differ- 
ence between the second and third weights gives the 
amount of humus. 
Now in your pan is clay, sand and silt. Put this soil 
in a wide-mouthed glass bottle or jar — a two-quart jar 
will do ; the larger the better. Fill it with water and 
then shake it violently. Then set it down on a table and 
observe. 
The sand or gravel being heaviest will settle first ; next 
the silt ; while the clay will remain in the water for hours. 
After a day or so, it will be seen that there are no sharp 
divisions, but yet the different elements are separated de- 
finitely enough to give a fairly good idea of the propor- 
tions. You can then work and treat your soil accord- 
ingly to make it well balanced. 
It is hardly ever necessary to make a complete chenn'- 
cal and mechanical analysis of soil, unless one knows for 
certain that its failure to carry the desired crop is entire- 
ly due to the structure or chemical constituents, and not 
to position or environment or the climate conditions rul- 
ing in the district. 
If soil is known to be barren, it is necessary to make 
a close analysis of it to find out why it is barren. If 
however, soil is not barren, but does not carry a crop 
well or is under suspicion, it is well to test for nitrogen, 
phosphoric acid, potash and lime, but unnecessary to test 
for iron, magnesia, sulphuric acid, silica, soda, or chlor- 
ine, because the latter are so generally present that they 
can be almost ignored. 
It is almost always better to work from a description 
and an examination of samples of soil in prescribing than 
from the closest and cleverest analysis, unless the soil is 
known to be barren. 
The analysis of soil can only be approximately true 
for these reasons : 
If the sample is taken from one place and represents 
several acres, it may be absolutely misleading. The pres- 
ence of a leguminous plant growing on the spot, the stall- 
ing of a beast, or the presence of a piece of refuse, might 
throw the analysis right out of gear. 
If the area to be analyzed is plotted and samples care- 
fully taken from each plot, the whole mixed and a small 
portion analyzed — the result would be substantially cor- 
rect, but in all probability if portions of the one sam])le 
were sent to dift'erent chemists for analysis, each one 
would give a slightly different result. 
To sum up, science in regard to agriculture is a good 
servant, but a cruel master — or in other words, a crop 
cannot be grown by thumb and rule, and unless rainfall, 
temperature, the humidity of the air, the quality of the 
soil, its conditions, drainage, power to conserve water, 
and all such factors are taken into account, and are more 
or less favorable — soil may be barren, although it may 
be proved by analysis to be rich and fertile. 
The analysis of poor soil placed against a good soil is 
pretty confusing to the ordinary man, and so hopelessly 
imintelligible to the majority, that they rarely exist ex- 
cept in text books. 
Poor Light Poor Heavy Good Heavy 
Example : Soils Soils Soils 
Nitrogen 0.10 0.12 0.19 
Potash 0.02 1.11 0.60 
Lime 0.10 0.00 2.61 
Phosphoric Acid 0.05 0.05 0.27 
The usual chemical analysis of a soil consists in find- 
ing out the amounts of the above elements present and 
also the percentage of magnesia and humus contained. 
These materials, except the humus, are extracted from 
the soil by strong acids, and the action of these acids is 
many times stronger than is ever brought to bear by 
plants on the soil in its normal condition in the field. 
It is therefore impossible at present to draw any certain 
conclusions from the results of such an analysis that are 
applicable to field conditions, since the acids used in the 
laboratory dissolve out much more of the plant-food in 
the soil than is ever in solution in normal soil water. If, 
however, an analysis shows only a very small amount of 
nitrogen, then one can certainly conclude that the soil is 
deficient in this element and would probably be benefited 
by its application. In inspecting new property and judg- 
ing the qualities of the soil it is always advisable to ob- 
serve the natural plant growth. 
.\ soil deficient in nitrogen is constantly showing its 
condition in the growth of the plants on it. Short growth 
of straw and vine, failure to develop a full dark green 
color in the foliage and the growth of sorrel and ox-eye 
daisy, all tell as accurately as the chemist, with all his 
skill, that the soil lacks nitrogen. It is the same with the 
other constituents. 
It is only when a soil is extremely deficient in certain 
plant foods that a chemical analysis of it shows the cause 
of the trouble. Casually an examination by an expert 
will suffice. 
