500 ’ STATE HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 
given locality, because he knows the characters and chemical 
elements of the particular rocks upon which the soil is placed 
and from which it has been derived. This is especially true 
in the regions where the soils rest upon the coal-measures, 
those upon the Devonian shales, and in the great famous 
Bluesfrass regions of the Silurian limestones, where the soil 
has been produced almost exclusively from the decomposition 
of those several rocks. You are very differently situated in 
this vast region of the lakes; you are in an immense drift 
formation. Here we have the most extensive evidence of the 
wonderful power of glacial transportation ; the whole country 
is overspread with moraines of the debris of ancient glaciers, 
whose power alone can account for these heavy deposits of 
clays, and gravels, and sands, accompanied y^ith great masses 
of hard rocks that have withstood the disintegrating forces of 
the elements, during their journeys cf hundreds of miles from 
the places of their original deposit. 
With such a basis, with such materials at hand, rich in the 
elements of plant food from various rocky strata, containing 
in their wonderful mixture all the substances that can be 
needed by every crop, you have indeed the basis of a valuable 
soil. The boulders that lie scattered over your country, and 
which prominently crown so many of your beautiful knolls 
and swelling ridges, and the smaller pebbles and gravels *vill 
furnish materials for a most interesting cabinet of minerals, 
since they are the debris that have been torn from every rock 
between you and further north. 
Better the triumphs of horticulture ! A wide but import¬ 
ant theme ! Why is this request to speak on this subject 
made? Why of me? Because for a want of a more thor¬ 
ough understanding of these principles many of us have failed 
to attain the results, towards which we have aimed. This is 
true of other places than Wisconsin. We have all suffered 
alike and can learn from one another’s experience—from that 
excellent but most extravagantly expensive teacher ! 
You have started on the right track for correction of errors. 
Your keen intelligence has led you to estimate correctly the 
