560 
TCHORNOZEM OR BLACK EARTH OF RUSSIA. 
The French agricultural chemist, M. Payen, who analysed a portion of the 
black earth at our request, says: — “ The composition of this earth is remarkable 
for the proportion of azotized matter which it contains. The connexion between this 
earth and the organic substance, when the latter is so rich in nitrogen, appears 
to me to be essentially one of the surest indications of the fertility of soil, other 
conditions of chemical properties and mineral composition being favourable. In 
this respect, and according to my compared analyses, the earth in question ap- 
proaches very near to two of the most fertile soils of France, that of the Limagne 
d’Auvergne (valley of the Upper Loire) and that of the neighbourhood of St. Denis, 
near Paris, notably in the farms of Marville and Stains.” 
The analyses of these able chemists afford us nearly the same results as to the 
proportions of the earthy constituents, whilst we learn from M. Payen 1 , that the 
unusually large quantity of nitrogen in the carbonaceous portion of the black 
earth may be the principal cause of its fertility. It would seem, however, that 
without a close attention also to the mechanical aggregation as well as the compo- 
sition of soils, it must be very difficult to estimate their fertilizing powers. Thus 
some of the poorest lands, as dissimilar in colour as in produce from the tchor- 
nozem, have almost to minute quantities, the same proportions of sand, clay, iron 
and vegetable matter. It is therefore, we believe, the extremely fine levigation of 
the silica, enabling that substance so to combine with the alumina as to form a 
1 We here subjoin one of the original documents of M. Payen, with the substantial results of the ana- 
lysis of a specimen of tchornozem sent to him by Colonel de GouriefF. 
Analyse. 
100 terre = 6*95 mat. organique combustible, 93*05 cendres 
Solubles dans l’ac. chlorhyd. bouillant = 13*79 .... 
Insolubles dans l’ac. chlorhyd. bouillant = 79*30 . . . 
6*95 
[ Alumine 
— 
5*04 
| Ox. de fer . 
= 
5*62 
Chaux . . 
= 
0*82 
| Magnesie 
— 
0*98 
(_Chls. alcals. . 
= 
1*21 
fSilice . . . 
= 
71*56 
J Alumine . . 
= 
6*36 
| Chaux (traces). 
(_ Magnesie . 
0*24 
98*78 
Azote pour 1000: — de matiere normale=l*66 ; de matiere seche= 1*74 ; de matiere organique=*24*99. 
The analysis of M. Payen indicates the presence in 100 parts of the original earth of 
Combustible organic matter 6*95, containing 2*45 nitrogen ! 
or in other words, 4*140 grammes of the earth yield 9*498 cubic centimetres of nitrogen or azotic gas. 
