TCHORNOZEM OR BLACK EARTH OF RUSSIA. 
559 
erratics superimposed on the black earth, a fact which agrees with our views of the 
The black soil does not, however, occupy all the vast country alluded to. It 
occurs, indeed, in separate areas, sometimes covering several large districts, and 
varies from a few feet to 15 or 20 feet in thickness. In travelling over these black 
tracts in a dry summer, we were often, during a whole day, more or less surrounded 
by a cloud of black dust, arising from the dried-up tchornozem, which is of so 
subtile a nature as to rise up through the sod, in rich grass countries, under the 
stamp of the horse s feet, and forms so dense a cloud, that the traveller is often 
begrimed like a working collier. 
The tchornozem is unquestionably the finest soil in Russia, whether for the 
production ol wheat or grass. It is so fertile as arable land, that the farmers never 
apply manure; and after taking many crops in succession, leave it fallow for a 
year or two, and then resume their scourging treatment 1 . 
On fracturing a hardened lump of this earth which we extracted from beneath 
10 to 12 feet of similar earth, all jet-black when moist, and which we had kneaded 
together to bring away, it offered in its dry state a slightly ferruginous brown tint ; 
and we further perceived, that besides the black matrix, grains of lighter-coloured 
sand were interspersed. Having submitted a portion of the mass to Mr. R. Phil- 
lips, he has obligingly furnished us with this analysis 
Dr. Daubeny, who has also interested himself in the examination of this black 
earth, and has detected about the same proportion of organic matter as that noticed 
by Mr. Phillips, thus expresses himself: — “ The possession of a deep soil, easily 
penetrated by the roots of plants, and containing so large a per-centage of mild 
humus, would alone impart great fertility.” 
1 On this head we can now say no more, and must refer our readers to vol.iii. p. I. of the Trans- 
actions of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, where we have enlarged upon the productive quali- 
ties of this soil. 
subaqueous origin of both. 
Silica 
Alumina 
Lime 
Oxide of iron 
Organic matter ...... 
Traces of humic acid, sulphuric acid, chlorine, &c. 
69-8 
13-5 
1-6 
7 
6-4 
1-7 
100 
4 c 2 
