330 
SOIL OF THE TACONIC DISTRICT. 
manifest in our analysis of the soils of the Wheat and Taconic districts : they differ, and 
those differences can not be accounted for by supposing that they are due to local accidents. 
Then again there is a similarity in the soils of the same geological regions, and this 
similarity is not due to accident, but to those general influences which have prevailed and 
operated over a widely extended territory. 
It is this uniformity in the composition of the New-York soils, which has led us on from 
step to step, and kept us at work in this part of the survey ; and as this fact could not be 
known at the outset, but must develop itself only in the progress of the work, it will 
appear as a reason why some things have been omitted and others performed. 
We may now proceed to state in detail those more thorough analyses, by which those 
interested will be able to compare the composition of the soils of the several districts with 
each other, and perceive the foundation upon which the pursuits in husbandry receive their 
special impulses ; for the husbandry of a country can go only in certain channels with 
much profit. Especially is this the case with the direct products of the soil; and the im¬ 
pulse which starts it, and impels it forward in this channel, is derived mainly from the 
composition of the soil. The local influence of small markets affects merely the minor 
products, or those which are derived from high garden culture. 
We shall first lay before our readers the constitution of the soil of the Taconic district. 
By reference to the map, the extent of this district will be seen ; but for a more perfect 
understanding of its character, we must refer to the geological structure, and the peculiar 
influence which diluvial action has exerted on this territory. 
Our attention has been directed to the soils of Rensselaer and Washington counties. 
The first analysis is of a soil remarkable for the production of maize, and which has been 
cultivated thirty or forty years. It is in the south part of Hoosic, on high ground, and 
underlaid by the taconic slate. The analysis was made upon a dry soil, which lost on 
drying at 300°, 4‘40, which is set down as water, but not reckoned as an element. 
Organic matter .. _ .. _ _ 
Silicates and silex_ _ 
Peroxide of iron and alumina_ 
Lime---- _ 
Magnesia_ _ 
First process. Second process. 
_ 9*31 00-00 
_ 77-00 70-87 
. 11-58 4-50 
_ 1-31 1-63 
_ 0-25 0-00 
99-45 
77-00 
Soluble silex_ 
Phosphates_ 
03 1C 
— 03 
03 
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3-37 
This soil is remarkable for its amount of vegetable matter, of soluble silex and the phos¬ 
phates, especially when taken in connexion with the fact that it has been cultivated so 
