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to be able to analyze tlie soil. When he reaches a favorable piece of 
ground, he commences an examination of its qualities. Boring into the 
earth, he endeavors to ascertain the depth of the surface soil, and the 
nature of the subsoil.—With his humble apparatus he examines the na¬ 
ture of the soil. He will soon know its fertility and w T hat it will grow. 
In a few hours, he will know the humus or organic matter, the lime, the 
clay, and the sand it contains. He will have ascertained its power of 
retaining moisture ; and will judge at once with an accuracy nearly ap¬ 
proaching certainty, of the quality and capabilities of a piece of land he 
never saw before, and from which the hand of labor and art has never 
yet extracted support and wealth. Set such a man on a farm which he 
has visited with a view of purchasing it, if suitable—it may be a farm 
exhausted by repeated croppings until its soluble salts and humus are 
•taken out of the soil. In damp weather and certain seasons, such a farm 
would be possibly arrayed in a verdure of deceptive vegetation ; but in 
its crops it would be considerably deficient. 
The analyzer of soils knows this : a skin-deep survey will by no means 
satisfy him. He tests the soil; he finds its soluble extracts, its nourish¬ 
ments, its feeding principles gone—nothing remaining but a skeleton soil 
—a beggarly account of sand and clay, not worth the labor of recover¬ 
ing to a state of fertility. In some future publication I may give the 
mode of performing a more minute analysis ; in the mean time I hope you 
will become practically familiar with the one I am about to give. You must 
• 
not expect great accuracy, without much practice, and patience. Hirst 
operate on those soils you know to possess certain qualities in a marked 
degree—compare these results, and you will be delighted and instructed; 
many familiar effects you will be able to trace to their appropriate causes. 
Draw your own conclusions from analogy, and prove by experiments ; 
your thoughts and mind will be thus elevated and improved, and you 
will be able to bring the important aids of science to the practical pur¬ 
suits of agriculture, and add alike to the source of your happiness, and 
temporal prosperity. 
We will adopt the following rough, and very simple short analysis; 
which will enable you to form a pretty correct judgment of the princi¬ 
pal, and most important qualities of the soil. By this method farmers, 
and country gentlemen as well as chemists, may obtain results suffi- 
