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ELEMENTS OF SOILS. 
The same kind of soil bottoms the vallies far south : even the Chemung vallies are greatly 
indebted to the soft rocks of Onondaga for fertile soil, but it does not reach the hill-sides. 
The soils of the primary rocks, especially those of Franklin county, have acquired much 
additional material from the Hudson-river shales of Canada; and a vast amount from the 
north is lodged on the northern slope of Franklin and Clinton counties, from Lake Cham¬ 
plain to the St. Lawrence river. It does not extend very far south, however, and most of 
the soil of this primary region is derived from the rocks themselves. 
In proceeding, then, to the examination of the soils of a district, especially if we wish 
to make a comparison between them and the underlying rock, the first step is to determine 
whether our soil is from a drift bed, or if it is filled with many large and small rounded 
pebbles of some other rock ; if so, we can not get much light upon the nature of the soil 
from the rock beneath. The pebbles, in this case, are sufficient of themselves to give 
some information of the probable nature and composition of the soil : if they consist of 
limestone, lime will probably be found in the soil ; if of slate or shale, there is the same 
indication, though it is not so important; but if the pebbles consist of silex, or sandstone 
gravel, the inference is decidedly negative so far as lime is concerned. Siliceous pebbles 
exert simply a mechanical effect, but that effect is valuable. 
IV. ELEMENTS OF SOILS. 
Properties and functions of the elements in their individual and combined 
CAPACITIES. 
Of the fifty-eight elements of matter, only about fifteen enter into the composition of 
vegetables, if we disregard marine plants. These fifteen elements are all found in soils, 
and are all necessary and essential parts of it. Each may be said to have its peculiar 
function: it maybe entirely useless so far as it is considered an element of a particular 
vegetable, but highly important in imparting a certain condition to the soil. The office 
of these elements is twofold : first, as performing a specific function in the organization 
of a living body; and secondly, as giving a particular state or condition to the soil: the 
first office is vital, the second mechanical. 
We have been considering elements, by which is usually meant a simple undecomposed 
body, as iron, gold, silver, oxygen, chlorine. This is not the state, however, in which 
they enter into the soil, or into plants; in their uncombined state, they are unsuited to 
either place. Hence we always find iron combined with some other element; and so also 
of sulphur, nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon, etc. The diamond (pure crystallized carbon), 
reduced to an impalpable powder, would be totally valueless as food for plants. Oxygen. 
