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ANALYSIS OF SOILS 
Analysis of a red clay from Christian-hollow. 
Compact, fine grained, and nearly without grittiness between the teeth. 
Water_ 13*64 
Organic matter_ 2*72 
Peroxide of iron and alumina_27*40 
Carbonate of lime_ 8*29 
Potash. 2*60 
Magnesia. 1*36 
Soluble silica__ 0*24 
Silica__ 44*84 
100*00 
This clay furnishes, what might have been expected, a respectable quantity of potash ; and 
the composition of the material shows that it may be used to ameliorate the exhausted 
soils, in those places where the expense of the work will not exceed that of other modes. 
It is evidently adapted to soils which are light and deficient in lime. The potash was 
obtained without fusion with an alkali. 
The result which has been obtained from the preceding analyses, is one which was quite 
unexpected. It appears that those soils which are so well adapted to the cultivation of 
wheat, are comparatively destitute of the phosphates, only a few analyses having given 
an appreciable quantity in one hundred grains. Four hundred grains of the wheat soil of 
Monroe county were tried for the phosphates, but without obtaining a trace. In 1000 
grains they became appreciable, but did not. amount to more than 0*20 of a grain. 
In this result, we find a remarkable difference in the maize and wheat soils ; the former 
requiring the phosphates, while the latter does not require them in a quantity so decisive. 
But other qualities are essential to the growth of wheat, which are not requisite for maize. 
The former, for instance, must be supplied with organic matter in combination with the 
alkalies and alkaline earth. When a wheat soil is treated with water, it dissolves twice 
the quantity of the organic salts that we have obtained from the maize soils of the Taconic 
district. A fact which supports this view of the subject, is found in the crops of maize 
grown upon some of the western wheat soils : they are smaller, and inferior to those raised 
upon the taconic hills. 
In Christian-hollow, the farm of Mr. Palmer produces wheat which is always plump in 
the grain, and in quantity equalling the premium crops ; yet the maize crop, upon the 
same soil, yields only about forty bushels per acre, and sixty bushels would be considered 
a remarkable crop. 
We have already given our views of the origin of the wheat soils of Central New-York, 
namely, that, they originate from the shales below the Manlius waterlimes, those soft and 
decomposable deposits which form the salt rocks. In the lowest member of this deposit, we 
obtained a trace of phosphate of alumina ; but the method, though one recommended and 
followed by chemists, is certainly exceptionable. The shales above the red marl appear 
