The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1909-08-13
Mysteries of Nature
By G. Frederick Wright, A. NJ. IL. D.
ORIGIN OF WORLDS FERTILE SOILS.

mountains has furnished its quota,
and so it is with nearly all the larger
river systems of the world.
In the northern part of Europe and
of the United States and in the south.
ern portions of British, America gla.
cial ice has been the plow and the
harrow and the scraper which have
prepared the region for its most sue
cessful occupation by man. The north
ern part of the United States is liv-
ing to a considerable extent upon the
richness of Canada. Everywhere down
to the limits reached by the ice of the
glacial period Canadian powders are
found, mingled with the finer grist of
Canadian rocks which were ground OF
from the highlands by the ice and car
rfed In its movement south for hun
dreds of miles. A European expert
has taught us how to enrich our soil
by grinding up the granite rocks, con-
tanning large amount Of feldspar
(Which is the basis Of clay) and other
elements Of value, and spreading it.
An eminent authority in the United
States recently asked me If we could
not accomplish that purpose in the
United States by grinding up the Cana
dian powders. The answer at hand
was, nature has already performed
that work for us. The ice movement
of the glacial period ground a large
part of the elements it brought with
it to the finest Of powder and spread
it far and wide. It is estimated that
on an average the deposit Of glacial
grist over the northern part of the
United States is 100 feet thick. When
I had nearly completed the survey of
the glacial boundary in Ohio 20 years
ago l CHANGED to meet Prof: w. /.
Chamberlain, the accomplished Sec
rotary of the board of agriculture, and
showed him the line across the state.
He at once remarked that that line
separated the more productive agri-
cultural portion of the state from the
least productive.
And still Canada has enough remain
ing. In Ontario, between the lakes,
it has reserved vast glacial deposit
of indefinite depth and unbounded fer
tility. The valley of the St. Lawrence
is one of the richest soils in the world,
resulting from the deposit of glacial
material in a temporary arm of the
sea which existed during the closing
portion Of the glacial period. But per-
haps the most remarkable of such &C.
cumulations is that in the bed of the
glacial Lake Agassiz.
The unrivaled richness of the Mis-.
souri, valley, where it passes through
South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kan
sas and Missouri. is due almost entire
ly to the "loess," which is principally
the fine portion Of the glacial grist de-
posted during the extreme floods
which characterized the final melting
Of the ice-sheet from the northern part
OF the United States. In many places,
as at Sioux City, Omaha, st. Joseph,
Mo-, this fine silt has accumulated
upon the edges of the valley to depth
of more than 100 feet, and all along
1t is spread out on either side to q
distance Of 40 or so miles.
In Europe the glacial deposits play
an equally prominent part in furnish
ing fertile soils for the agriculturist.
All the lowlands of northern Germany
and western Russia consist of glacial
debris largely ground of from the
mountains of Scandinavia, and spread
out over the area to depth of
oftentimes 100 feet of more. The ex-
tensive plains of black earth which
cover southern Russia and have long
been famous for their production of
wheat, are covered with loess to q
depth of so feet or more, precisely like
that in the Missouri valley which has
just been referred to. In the opinion
OF the Russian biologists this is a
water deposit connected with the clos
ing stages of the glacial period.
Anyone familiar with the dust
storms on our western plains or on
the borders of Mongolia will not be
surprised to learn that some of the
most eminent biologists believe that
the great deposits Of loess in China.
and even in our Missouri valley, were
originally derived from the arid re-
gions to the west, from which the ma
terial has been brought by the winds.
Whatever may be true as to the
agency of water in finally distributing
this rich soil into its present situa-
ton, it is in China most probably
a slow accumulation of dust blown by
the prevailing west winds from the
vast plains of the desert of Cobb:
while that in the Missouri valley has
very likely come in a similar manner
from the arid regions of the Rocky
mountain plateau. Oftentimes on the
borders of these regions the sun will
be for considerable time almost dark
ened by the dust that fills the air.
Thus by various methods is nature
able to transfer the richness which is
superintendent in one region to other
areas less generously provided, but
otherwise more suitably adapted to
the occupation of man.