The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-06-17
Michiran. It's Soils. etc.

coming volume on the mines and mineral re-
sources of Michigan, and will be found of
interest to the readers of the NoRTHERSER.
SOILS.
Michigan has great variety of soils; sand
and clay timber soil and prairie, pine land and
swamp are found everywhere, intermin-
| eled in all counties in the state.
In general it is alluvial and drift, made up of
disintegrated rock with variable proportion
of organic matter, derived from decayed veg
etable and animal substance.
The constituent is Silica as large portion
of our soil is sand, or approximately so. No
doubt silica comprises seventy-tive to ninety
per cent of the pine and oak openings soils;
in addition are contained the silicates of al
umina, iron, lime, magnesia potash and 9th
er substances in lesser degree.
The rocks which underle the superstructure
of the lower peninsula are deeply covered
with the alluvial and drift largely derived by
decomposition and disintegration from the
rocks which outcrop so extensively in the
northern peninsula.
The materials which make up our soil, the
sand. the gravel, the mud and dust, the peb-
bles and great boulders are mainly the frag-
ments which once built up the rocky hills in
our northern borders that for ages were sub
jected to the ever active and irresistible fore
es of nature that slowly diminished their
volume and disseminated the detached par
ticles and Masses which, borne forward by
the rivers and Winds the waves and the ice,
have finally built up the rich and varied
region which we possess.
| Every particle of earth once constituted q
portion, however small, of a pre- existing rock,
perchance many times removed and reform
ed In past time and destined, il may be. to
enter again into rock masses in some future
period.
The hardest rocks ultimately lose their Co
herence under the action of natural agencies,
| the mechanical and chemical forces of nature.
! In the mountainous districts the rocks are
crumbled by the SHOWS and frosts, to be
crushed into smaller fragments and rounded
or ground into dust by the force of the NOV
ing ice, and thence borne forward by the tor
rents and mountain streams, the rivers, the
waves and the winds. to be spread over the
valleys and plains, and thus TO become soil
that is to be further modified and enriched,
as time progresses, by the growth and de-
cay of animal and vegetable life,
But these mechanical forces are not the
only desintegrating influences to which the
rock masses are subject, and to which we
are indebted for the composition of opr soil.
The chemical forces of nature, though less
apparent to the ordinary sense, are none the
less productive ofimportant results. Carbonic
acid and oxygen, though invisible are insid-
ious and never ceasing in their action. The
oxygen combines with the protoxide of iron
that is found in our soil, changing it into per-
oxide, material much more conducive to
the support of plant life. This protoxide ex-
| lists frequently in the soil of swamps or the
subsoil of land, and is recognized by the
brownish color which it gives to such soil.
When, through the action of oxygen. it is
changed into peroxide, it gives a reddish hue
TO the soil. We readily see how quickly iron
and many other metals oxydize and disinte-
CRATE on exposure to the tmosphere and it
is but natural to infer that the rocks and
other substances must succumb to the like
influence.
All rocks are composed of one or more of
certain minerals, as quartz, mica. feldspar,
hornblende, calcite ETC.; these minerals are va
riously composed of silica, lime, alumina
potash, soda. iron, magnesia etc., and by the
chemical decomposition of these minerals
the valuable constituents which compose them
are supplied to the soil in form available for
plant food. Silica is feeble acid that often
holds in its uncertain grasp important aka
lies to form silcates, as the silicate of potash
soda. magnesia etc. which under favorable
chemical conditions that will occur in the
laboratory of nature, are disintegrated and
given TO the support of vegetable life.
All the silicates which are valuable are de-
composed by acids. and. indeed, the moisture
which may hold small percentage of carbon
ic acid or nitric acid. slowly acts TO decompose
many of the slicates, and give the alkali to
the soil. This decomposition of a silicate by
water and acids proceeds with rapidity pro-
portioned TO the quantities of alkalies which
it contains: carbonic acid and water are the
important agents in the decomposition of
rocks; especially is this true of the feldspathic
rocks-those which are composed largely of
feldspar minerals minerals which are COM
pounds of silica. alumina, potash, lime and
soda.
DR.. kedzie of the Agricultural College. has
accomplished very important task in analyz-
ing soils obtained from various parts of the
state He has taken soils brought from 81
different localities. and subjected them TO a
complete and extensive analysis.
In connection with the sample analysed,
Its popular characteristics are given-the
kinds of timber which grew upon it and the
amount of cultivation to which il has been
it has produced. Almost every variety of
soil which the state affords is here dssected
and the results brought together for compari-
son-to make these analyses was work of
great labor which no one but person actu-
ated with zeal for the public good, that DR..
Kedzie always manifests, would have carried
out. The results are highly interesting and
when properly interpreted in the light of
experience, are of much practical value. DIR.
Kedzie explains that the chemical analysis
of the soil is of value in determining whether
a soil is capable of fertility.
There are certain ash elements which are
indispensable to plant growth. in the alb
sence of which growth impossible. If the
supply in the soil is moderate the growth of
vegetation will be correspondingly meagre.
If on the contrary these lash elements are
fully represented in available form, such a
soil will.be fertile Hence chemical analy-
sis of soil is of value in determining the
fertility of which il is capable and of what
elements it may be lacking to render it so.
Some of these analyses are of soils from
the best portion, agriculturally, of southern
Michigan on which maximum crops have
been raised for years; others are from the
new COMMITTEES i'm the north. Int with few ex-