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eiently accurate for many practical uses. Take your calcareous sample 
{No. 4.)—dry before the fire or in the sun, until it is as dry as soil on the 
surface, in summer, where exposed to the sun—that is, until it feels 
quite dry to the touch—rub between the fingers till evenly pulverized ; 
weigh precisely 1000 grains, put it on an iron plate or clean shovel, and 
place in an oven or over a gentle fire—drop in some bits of white paper— 
keep stirring constantly—let it remain until the paper begins to turn 
brown ; it ought to take at least one half hour. You must not allow it 
io burn ; your object being merely to expel all moisture without burning. 
When thus perfectly dry, empty on a clean sheet of paper being careful 
to raise as little “dust” as possible. I may as well remark here, that in 
your stirring, weighing, and all other manipulations, waste not a particle 
that can be avoided, be minute and precise. Weigh accurately—it only 
weighs 876 grains a loss of 125parts, which is the moisture this soil is capa„ 
ble of retaining after it appears dry. The great absorbent quality, a very 
important item, of this soil is a considerable indication of its fertility ; 
taken as a general rule, the greater the absorbent power, the better the 
land. A stiff clayey soil is an exception, it being frequently as retentive 
of moisture as fine loam—this must be remembered. Note down on a 
slip of paper—water of absorption 125. Next, rub through a fine sieve, 
(such as are used for sifting meal will answer) what remains on the sieve 
is fine gravel and small stones. When there is vegetable matter, entirely 
undecomposed, it will be separated in sifting ; in such cases, you must 
“pick” it out and weigh, or weigh all that remains on the sieve, and 
burn out the “ woody” fibres. What it loses in weight will be the unde¬ 
composed vegetable matter ; in the “ sample” under analysis we have 
none. You must not separate the “loose stones” and vegetable matter, 
before the water of absorption has been tested, for these substances 
are often highly retentive of moisture, and increase the fertility of the 
Boil. We have 50 grains of small “pebbles”—let us examine these, to 
ascertain whether they be silicious or calcareous—if silicious they will 
appear “flinty,” and cannot be scraped with a knife—if calcareous they 
will effervesce with acid, and if common slate stones they can be cut with 
a knife and will not effervesce. You perceive we have here about an 
equal quantity of ‘ lime’ and ‘ flint’ stones. Make your entry silicious 
and calcareous gravel 50. If you wish to be more minute, in ascer¬ 
taining the amount of lime, in the coarse sand and gravel, you must 
