Elements of practical agriculture Author:David Low Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: soils, but are determined by the character of the soil, as derived from its other properties. Though soils are thus distinguished by external characters, they... more » pass into each other by such gradations, that it is often difficult to say to what class they belong. These intermediate soils, too, are the most numerous class in all countries. The soils termed peaty, indeed, form a peculiar class, always marked by distinctive characters; but even these, when mixed with other substances, pass into the earthy soils, by imperceptible gradations. We may say, therefore, that the greater part of soils consists of an intermediate class, and that it is often difficult to bring them under any division, derived from their texture alone. Such soils, however, can always be distinguished by their powers of production. They are good, bad, or intermediate between good and bad; and their relative value is determined by the produce which, under similar circumstances, they will yield. 11. THE PROPERTIES OF SOILS, AS DETERMINED BY CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. Having examined the external characters of soils, we might inquire into their properties, as determined by chemical analysis. This, however, is a branch of the extensive subject of agricultural chemistry, into which it would not be consistent with the practical and elementary nature of this work to enter at length. It is merely proposed, therefore, to direct the attention of the reader to this part of the science of agriculture, and to make known to him a few results which have been arrived at. The soil has been said to be a compound of mineral substances, mixed with a portion of vegetable and animal matter. The vegetable and animal matter of the soil exists either in a state of mixture, or of chemical union with the minerals of the soil. Th...« less