The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-11-23

water of springs, rivers and lakes, in almost
all soils, ard in the form of rock salt. Sea
salt is compound of sodium with chlorine
sodium also occurs as oxide of sodium or soda
in good many minerals, and more especially
in the forms of carbonate, nitrate and borate
of soda; these forms of this metal are undoubt-
edly to be attributed to the process of chemical
| disintergration of primitive rocks. -
! Soda or sodium is necessary constituent of
the soil in which it performs part not much
unlike potash, for which it may be substituted
to great extent, -r.-,...- .,e.
Ph,sphoic acid is of equal if NOT more impor-
tance than slicic acid, is found in all rocks of
primitive origin. In the animal kingdom it is
found as phosphate of lime, magnesia and am
monia; the fact that it is found in the ashes of
all the cultivated plants, is sufficiently indica-
/ tive of the part it performs in the vegetable
economy-it contributes about ten per cent.
of the ashes OF the roots of the red beet; about
forty per cent. of the ashes of the grain of In.
dian corn about fifty per cent. of the ashes of
| buckwhcat grains.
Notwithstanding, soil may produce large
and rank growth of straw, unless phosphoric
acid is present in sufficient quantity, and in
proper form for the plant to assimlate it, there
will not be corresponding yield of grain
Hence in soils in which this condition of
things is manifest, the agriculturist may in
crease the quantity of grain by the application of
manures containing this ingredient.
] iSulphuric acid, or oil of yitriol, occurs in
large quantities in the mineral kingdom, in
combination with various bases, such as the
alkalies and alkaline earths. In New Granada,
in South America, this acid has been discov-
cred in the uncombined state in thermal
spring. In the soil sulphurie acid acts rath-
er as solvent of other ingredients than as
food for plants, although it is found in va
rious combinations in tie ashes of plants. It
exists most abundantly in the tops of turnips,
potatoes, and plants of this class, amounting to
| FIVE to ten per cent. of their ashes. There is
more of it contained in the straw than in the
grain of the cereals; it is most abundant, how
ever in the ashes of oil producing seeds.
The foregoing constitute the tangible pom
deraJlc bodies Chat is, the bodies that are con-
siderably heavier than common air) which are
contained in the soil, and that are absorbed
! and assimilated by the plant The soil not
| unfreguently contains other substances from
which the plant can derive no nourishment,
and which proves an injury rather than other
wise, to the plant; such are, for example, OK
| ide lead, copper, etc. There are four gases,
however, whose presence is as absolutely neces-
| sary to the successful growth of plants as that
of any of the ingredients of the soil, these
four gases are named carbon, hydrogen, oxygen
and nitrogen. All that portion of the plant
not derived from the ponderable bodies of the
SOIL as we'll as the whole atmosphere of the
globe, all the water, and very considerable
portion of the solid rocks which con pose this
earth consist of one, two, three all of these
gases combined in different proportions Car
bon is generally found solid, but the re-
naming three occur as pure gases in nature.
Superimpesed ON the granite rocks are a
series several thousand feet thick, termed by
geologsts the metamorphic series. Next
| above the metamorphic series are the Cam
brian rocks, three thousand feet thick, formed
under the ocean and consist of slate, Gmerocks
and sandstones. Next are the lower, and up
| per silurian rocks-these consist of limestone,
sable, sandstone, slate, fagstone, and abound
| in fossils. The lower silurian series is about
| $500 feet thick and the upper about 1000
| feet Above this is the old red sandstone or
devonian formation, and consists of marls, lime
stones and sandstones, ahounding in shells, cor
ais and fishes. Then comes the carboniferous
or coal formation, several thousand feet thick.
| This series is made up of shales, clays, sand
stones and llmestones. In walk with Major
| FulkersoH, this morning, to the stone quarry,
1 have come to the conclusion from the fossils
found there, that Ashland is situated just on
| the junction ofthe Carboniferous and Devonian
systems; but you are many feet-perhaps two
thouso nd-beow the coal strata. 1t is there
fore all folly to entertain any idea of finding
may be found in the east part of Wayne, but
| they are only on the western outlines of the
great coal field, stretching from Northern Penn
sylvania to Alabama, and embracing the east
ern portion of Ohio. Above the coal series
arc the new red sandstone about 1,200 feet
thick, and contains gypsum, rock salt, fossil
fishes, shells and plants then we find the has
above it the oolite, above that the %ealden,
and last of the secondary series is the chalk
IL &c he
ment of shells, land animals and plants ofsuch
species as now inhabit the surface of the earth.
Superimposed on the Tertiary is the drift form
alton, made up Of clays, sand, gravel, &C., and
compose most of the soil found in your val
leys at the present time.
But you ask what has all this to do With ae-
riculture 1 reply it has everything to do
with it. 1t determines for you the origin of
your soil, and by proper study indicates to you
the method of managingit. Yoa all are aware
that you do not grow wheat of as good quality, |
nor as stiff in the straw the second bottoms
as you do on the uplands. Why2 Not be-
cause the climate is different-not because the |
uplauds are better cultivated, but because the |
soil is different it lacks some ingrdient neces:
sary for the growth and developments OF the |
wheat plant which the upland has got. Then |
the second bottom produces better corn than |
the uplands. Why? Because these bottoms
have more humus or vegetable mould than the |
uplands have. This humus is just the kind of
food that the corn plant requires. A gentle
man remarked to me last night, that corn could
not be grown in Ashland Co. to fatten short
horn cattle as cheaply as in southern Ohio On.
Kentucky. Why? Not because your climate /
is different nor because labor is cheaper at the |
other points, but because the Miami, Scioto and |
Muskingum vallies have the proper kind of Soil I
to grow corn in perfection.
You all know, perhaps, that white oak soil
is best adapted to grow wheat, and that soil
that produces black walnut and butternut trees
in abundance, grows the straw too rankly and /
weak, and the heads do not fill so well nor SO
pllmply as in the white oak soil. A beech |
soil is always moist, cold, and heavy, and id
time of drought is liable to bake