The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1909-08-13

1t hardly needs saying that in gen
eral the prosperity of a nation is de-
pendent upon the fertility of its soil.
In some few cases, it is true, nations
may prosper because they have a mo-
nopoly of mines, of manufactures, or
Of the means of trade and commerce.
But the larger part of the things which
minister to the necessities and the
comforts Of mankind are the direct
products OF the soil. The study of the
soils becomes a department of geology
because all soils are rock in processes
OF transformation. The earth is COW
cred by very thin veheering of soil.
At depth of few inches or few
feet, or at most a few hundred feet,
solid rock is everywhere reached. The
soils of the world have their origin in
the disintegration of these rocks by ex-
posture to the atmosphere or to various
mechanical agencies like that Of run
ming water and moving ice.
The relation of the soil to the under
lying rocks, however, is dependent
upon the action of transporting agen-
cies which are at hand. Where there
are no transporting agencies sufficient
to carry away the disintegrated parti-
cles as fast as they accumulate over
the surface we have what is called
residual SOIL" whose character will
partake entirely of that of the under
lying rock. II the underlying rock is
conglomerate or sandstone resid-
ual soil will be composed of nothing
but sand and gravel, which is capable
OF supporting only limited variety of
vegetable life.
1t Is fortunate, however, that these
barren sandstone ridges alternate with
the rocks of different character whose
disintegration produces a residual soil
of remarkable fertility. From one end
to the other of the Appalachian chain
pear in lines horizontal to those of the
sandstone outcrops, such as are cut
through by the Delaware, the Lehigh,
the Susquehanna, tie Potomac and
other rivers just before reaching the
Atlantic coast plain. These limestones
contain all the elements required by
the higher class of vegetation, and
the thin residual soil over them has fur
nished the basis for some of the most
prosperous communities of the coun-
try. The celebrated Wyoming valley
on the Susquehanna, the Shenandoah
valley in Virginia and that of the up
per Tennessee are illustrations of the
agricultural wealth which is supplied
by the disintegration of limestone
rocks. In numerous places in central
Pennsylvania as In the mountains
south of Williamsport, there are limit
ed outcrops of limestone over which
have sprung up flourishing communi-
ties surrounded by barren sandstone
mountains, as islands are surrounded
by water in the sea.
The blue grass region in Kentucky
is similarly situated, being bordered
by barren outcrops of Devonian sub
carboniferous conglomerates and sand
stones, while the thin covering of soil
resulting from the disintegration of
the Silurian limestone supports a veg
citation which furnishes the elements
most necessary for the best develop
ment of cattle and horses, and so in
considerable measure accounts for the
pre-eminence of that region in those
departments of industry 1t would
not be strange, also, If the pre-em-
inence claimed by the Kentuckians for
the beauty of their women and the
strong physique of their men were due
to this gift from nature of richly
endowed limestone soil.
The agricultural richness of Pales-
tine is traceable to a similar cause.
Soil there which would seem to west
ern farmer worthless, produces the
finest vineyards and the most flourish
ing olive groves, because the disinte-
grafton constantly going on in the
fragments of limestone rock that cover
the surface annually supplies the ele-
ments needed for these most impor-
tant ministers to human need.
But so limited are the deposits of
rock containing the concentrated ele-
ments of fertility that an undue por-
ton of the world would be barren If
1t were not that nature is provided
with elaborate means of transporta-
ton, whereby the richness of one Sec
ton is carried to another, resulting
in commingling of elements, which
is of the highest advantage. During
the long geological ages water, ice and
air had been engaged in transporting
and depositing in distant regions the
residual soils which were accumulat-
ing thousands of years before man
came upon the scene. The flood-plains
of nearly all rivers are rich in agri-
cultural possibilities because they
have brought to them the elements of
soil supplied by the entire river basin.
The Mississippi valley from Cairo to
the gulf is deposit of sediment to
which the whole upper portion, extend
ing from the Rocky to the Allegheny