The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1869-10-29

:
West and Northwest, can manutae-
ture as desirable goods in as elegant
styles as they can in Europe. Now,
what we want is to prohibit, by some
means or other. European manutac-
lures from being thrown upon our
markets. We are Europe's best Gus
toner, and if We discontinue our i'm
ports-which have exceeded hun
dred millions of dollars annually
We will soon find these European I
manufacturers locating in our midst,
and supplying US with the skilled Ia
Dor requisite to produce the most
complex manufactures. a home
market for our products is always a
better one than a foreign market. If
wheat is worth $3.50 per bushel in
Tifin, it is better for Seneca
county farmers than if it is worth
81, 80 only in New York, and Seneca
county farmers be compelled to
ship it to New York to obtain that
price.
As first step towards the deVel-
opment of our natural resources here
in Ohio, the Legislature ordered
geological survey to be made. Many
have asked me what will this survey
amount to? 1t will amount simply
to this, viz: We will know what min
eral resources we have and where to
fnd them. 1t is like a merchant or
farmer taking an account of what
property he has or owns, and seeing
what shape it is in, and ascertaining
what he can do with it-how he can
make it available. Then there is an
agricultural survey connected with
the geological survey, what will 1t
amount to? A knowledge of soils,
subsoils and substrata constitutes the
science of agricultural geology. The
objects of agricultural geology are :
First. The classification Of soils
on a sound and accurate basis, and
the establishment Of some general
nomenclature of them, instead of that
confusion of names, which renders it
almost impossible for the cultivator
Of one district, to know the nature of
a soil on which a given process of
cultivation has been found success
full, or unsuccessful in another.
Second. Agricultural geology
should be able to impart knowl-
edge of the laws of the distribution
of soils; that is to say, where soils of
a given quality, or adapted to a Civ
en- system Of agriculture, are to be
found.
Third. The proper depth and dis
tances Of drains depend on the per-
meability, or mellowness of the soil
and subsoil, by water. A knowledge
of this and the phenomenon of
springs which is essential to eeonO-
my and efficiency in freeing land
from water when in excess, and in
obtaining supply of it when def
eient, constitutes one department Of
agricultural geology.
Fourth. Another department Of
agricultural geology comprises 4
knowledge of the nature and proper
ties and the distribution of mineral
manures, or those substances which
may be obtained from the subsoil and
substrata for the correction of chem
ical and mechanical defects in the
composition of the soil.
Fifth. Jointcd structure and slaty
cleavage of rock impregnated with
metallic substances are in many in
stances local accidents to which the
strata have been subject, and which
must affect the character of the soils
derived wholly from rocks of the
same formation. Soils will be drier
Oh rocks traversed by numerous
joints and by slaty cleavage, than on
those which are destitute of them.
Thin soils resting on such rocks, If
the joints are numerous and the
cleavage vertical or highly inclined,
are great devourers of manure which
runs through them like a sieve and
are what are usually known as leachy
soil. Salts injurious to vegetation
prevail in soils resting on rocks which
abound in metallic sulphurets.
Sixth. Agricultural geology should discrimi-
nate between soils composed exclusively of
the material of the rocks on which they rest,
and those in which they rest, and those in which
the materials have been derived from various
strata and blended by aqueous transport.
Wnencc iaTu Vef'. iIal=Astiaatinn of the sources
making may be obtained, OF the best quality and
at the cheapest rates, is a department Of geology
Of no small importance to the farmer. It viii Of
ten instruct him how, on the one hand, he may
obtain under or near to his own land the very
substances which he is bringing at a greater ex-
penze from distance; on the other hand, how by
means of railways they maybe brought at a cheap
n rate from distance of. twenty or thirty miles
han from nearer sources Of supply whence he Is
hauling them with his own horses.
Such arc some of the questions which sgricul-
ural geology is required 10 answer. To some of
The most important of them, which relates to the
distribution Of soils, il is unable in its present
tate to give more than very imperfect answers, |
ecause the greater part of the data necessary |
Or their solution are yet uncollected. For the |
urposes of agriculture, geological Investigations |
mbrace two classes of facts: the distribution /
nd composition Of the rock formations, and the |
distribution and composition Of the drifts or CT
attic tertiaries. Geologists have occupied them
slyes too exclusively with the former; the latter
'om their superficial position and the extensive
reas which they cover, are of the most immed-
tie importance in an agricultural point OF view.
I'm ind h |
lore especially in the northern and western por-
ons Of the stste. Where the drift is only two
et thick It, in many cases, constitutes both
iii and subsoil when it extends TO seven feet,
is greater and deeper than the deepest
rains of the deepest drslners. There are pisces
like MassillOn, in Stark county, where the drift
more than hundred feet thick or deep, in such
Ises the substrata can have agricultural val
But an agricultural survey at the same time
kes cognizance of the system of agriculture
opted, and determines whether or not il is the ]
st for the soil and locality-an approximate J
alysis Ofthe pasture grasses, and forage plants
II be made, TO determine the comp arative mn ]
tive value Of these plants The function per
rmed by red clover in agriculture will. A. least
attempted to be explained. +
This appro innate analysis OF grasses Ibold
be consumm alton of the very greatest i'm L
rtance TO the farmer. Very few farmers are Q
are of the amount OF beef an acre Of good and p
tritious grass will produce: In some grasses n
first growth contains the greatest proportion s
nutritive. matter, in others, the most nutrtive S
found in the aftermath. 5.
{ is very possible that this analysis VIII s.
that some grasses will not WELD c
exceed seventy-fVe or eighty pounds Of T
4 per acre, whilst Others viii produce two hun 81
d pounds of beef per acre. Ofcourse this can "
only by chemical analysis.
-ou will, perhsps, object and say all this is too
entifc and not sufficiently practical for the b
nsrs of Ohio. Well, remember very well in b
9, when the first resping machine was brought ID
,tar cnr,ntv the farmers Objected IN 81 On a. ST