Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1858-02-05
COMPOSITION OF SOILS.

stituents of the different kinds of soil.
Pure sand and pure limestones, in
which there are no other inorganic sub
stances except siliceous earth, carbonate
or silicate of lime, form absolutely barren
soils. But argillaceous earths form al
ways part of fertile soils. Now from
whence come the argillaceous earths in
arabic land, what are their constituer IS.
and what part do they play in favoring
vegetation? They are produced by the
disintegratioD Of aluminous minerals by
the action of the weather; the common
potash and soda felspars, Labrador spar,
mica, and the zeolites, are the most com
mon aluminous earths, which undergo
this change. These minerals are found
mixed with other substances in granite.
gneiss, mica-slate, porphyry, clay-slate,
/ grauwacke, and the volcanic rocks, baSalt.
clinkstone, and lava. In the grauwacke.
we have pure quartz, clay-slate, and lime;
in the sandstones, quartz and loan. The
/ transition limestone and the dolomites
contain an intermixture of clay, felspar.
I porphyry, and clay-slate; and the noun
tain limestone is remarkable for the guam
tity Of argillaceous earths which it con-
tains. Jura limestone contains $50.
that Of the Wurtemberg Alps $50
/ per cent. of these earths. And in the
n'sscheLtale and the calcairs grossisr
they exist in greater or less quantity.
Ii is known, that the aluminous min
earals are the most widely difused on the
surface of the earth, and as we have al
ready mentioned, all fertile soils: Or soils
capable of culture, contain alumina as an
invariable constituent. There must.
therefore, be something in aluminous
earth which enables it to exercise an in
fuence on the life of plants, and to assist
in their development. The property on
which this depends is that of its invari-
ably containing potash and soda.
Alumina exercises only an indirect in
fuence on vegetation, by its power of at
tracing and retaining water and ammo
MIA; it is itself very rarely found in the
ashes of plants, but silica is always pres
ent, having in most places entered the
plants by means of alkalies. In order 10
form a distinct conception of the quaati-
ties Of alkalies in aluminous minerals. it
must be remembered that felsparco
Il "a per cent. of potash, albite 1I-43
I per cent. of soda, and mica 80 per cent. ;
and that zeolite contains 1916 per cent.
OF both alkalies taken together. The
late analyses Of Oh. Gmelin. Lowe,
Fricke, Meyer, and Redtenbacher, have
also shown, that basalt contains from 3-4
to per cent. Of potash, and from 81
per cent. Of soda, that clay-slata contains
z'14-5'3I per cent of potash, and loan
from l l-2-4 per cent of potash.
Potash is present in all cIays; accord
ing TO Fuchs, it is contained even. in
mari; it has been found in all the argilla-
ceou5 earths in which it has been SOUGHT.
The fact that they contain potash may be
proved in the clays of the transition and
stratifed mountains, as we'll as in the
recent formations surrounding Berlin. by
SIMPLY digesting them with sulphuric
acid, by which process alum is formed
! (Alitscherlich.) 1t is well known also
TO all manufacturers Of alum, that the
leys contain a certain quantity Of this
salt ready formed, the potash Of which
has its origin from the ashes of the
stone and brown coal, which contains
much argillaceous earth.
When we consider this extraordinary
distribution Of potash over the earth. Is if
reasonable to have recourse to the idea.
that the presence of this alkaIi in plants
Is due to the generation of metallic oxide
by peculiar organic process from the
component parts of the atmosphere? This
opinion found adherents even after the
method Of detecting potash in soils was
known, aud suppositions of the same
kind may be found even in the writings of
some Psychologists of the present dav.
Such opinions belong properly to the
time when flint was conceived to he
product Of chalk, and when everything
which appeared imcomprehensible on sc-
count Of not having been investigated
was explained By assumptions far more
incomprehensiJle.
a thousandth part of loan mixed with
the quartz in new red sandstone. or with
the lime in the different limestone cor-
nations affords as much potash to 4 soil
only twenty inches in depth as is sufi-
Gent TO supply forest ofpines growing
upon it for century. A single cnbic
foot Of felspar is sufficient to SUNNY
wood, covering a surface of 2G.91o square
feet, with the potash required for five
years.