Talks about the soil in its relation to plants and business. A book of observations and experiments for the use of schools, students, and farmers

Front matter

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

IN ITS RELATION TO

Prefatory Note

Headquarters of the C. T. C. C,

Houghton Farm, Mountainville, Orange County, New York, 1886.

The Chautauqua Town and Country Club is a branch of the Chautauqua University, and is devoted to the practical study of plants and animals, horticulture and agriculture. Its course of instruction extends over two years, and includes the reading of the four books forming this series, and the performance of a number of experiments and easy studies with plants and animals. This is the second book of the required course of reading, and is to be read by all members during the first winter of the class to which they belong. For full particulars concerning the course of instruction, address Miss Kate F. Kimball, secretary of the C. L. S. C, Plainfield, N. J.

This book was prepared at the Club Headquarters ; and all the experiments here described have been made vi PRE FA TOR Y NO TE.

the subject of study in the experimental department of the farm, under the immediate superintendence of Major Henry E. Alvord, manager of Houghton Farm.

THE AUTHOR.

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CHAUTAUQUA TOWN AND COUNTRY CLUB.

This book, entitled "Talks about the Soil," is the second of our required course of reading. We all join in reading this book at least once during the first winter we are members of the club. As in our first book, so in this, you will find a number of novel and instructive experiments and observations. You cannot fail to learn something from each, and you are all earnestly requested to try as many of the experiments as possible.

The examination papers that will be sent to you after reading this book will include a few questions that can be answered only by trying the experiments ; and you will find it of advantage to try as many as possible in order that you may win our Chautauqua diploma when you graduate. Trusting you will find the book of interest and use to you, and that it will help you in taking one more step towards obtaining your diploma, I am

Sincerely your friend,

CHARLES BARNARD, Superintendent of Instruction, C. T. C. C.

Introduction

The world is a great book, and he who walks or rides may read. We cannot get inside the earth ; and so it happens we do not know positively how it looks within the thin crust on which we live, nor can we, except in a very uncertain way, know of what the interior is made or in what condition it may be. This is not of much consequence ; because the outside of the world, the part we call the ground, and the things upon it, are quite enough to take all our attention. Upon the surface of the world are the great seas, the mountains, the plains and rivers ; and among these things we spend our lives. It is not very convenient to get off the ground, except for a few hours in a balloon : so it happens we must at all times remain on the surface of this great and wonderful book called the Earth or the World. We might board a steamer, and sail upon the sea, and soon lose sight of the land, and yet all the time we would be comparatively near the ground. Beneath the deepest seas is still the solid ground ; and the ship merely floats above the crust of the earth, upon the water. In a few places, men in

X INTRODUCTION.

search of coals or metals have opened deep holes in the ground. We might go down into one of these mines, in the hope of finding out something concerning the inside of the world ; but we should find it so uncommonly dark that not a thing could be seen. We may carry a lamp ; but its feeble light only shows rough rocks or glistening coal, looking precisely like the rocks and coals we have seen on the hillsides. We stand still a while in the gloom of the mine, and listen, in the hope we may hear some sound from the interior of the earth that may tell us what is going on there : there is nothing, — nothing save intense blackness, awesome stillness, deep, profound, and terrifying. We may be glad to escape up the elevator to the sunshine, well content to spend our lives upon the solid ground. A trip in a balloon is quite as unsatisfactory. The sky seems just as high ; the stars, the sun, and the moon are no nearer; and, if we look down, we find the ground extends in every direction till it is lost in the distance, — blue, indistinct, immense. The air is thin and cold, and we may be glad when the balloon voyage is safely over, and we are once more on the good, old-fashioned ground.

So, it appears, we have to spend our whole lives upon one of the planets ; and as we cannot get inside of it, and cannot get away from it, we are really prisoners on the outside or surface of the great star called Earth. The air is cold and thin, the caves and mines are dismal and dangerous. We do not care to stay either above or below the ground ; and, though we are

INTRODUCTION. XI

prisoners upon it, we may be very well satisfied. On the ground stand our homes ; out of the ground come our food and clothing, fruits, flowers, grain, wood, precious metals, coal, gas, iron, and all else that goes to make our lives worth living. Out of this same ground we stand upon, comes all wealth of every kind. Certainly it is well worth our time and labor to study this stony surface of the earth. If the ground is the source of so many good things, we ought to be well acquainted with it, that we may learn to win from it more food, more clothing, more wealth of every kind.

One of the first things we observe in looking at the ground is, that it is in almost every place covered with plants. These plants we see are good, some for food, some for useful woods, some for materials for clothing, and others are excellent foods for birds and animals. It is through these plants we gain wealth from the ground. We have already, in the first book of this series of Chautauqua Talks, made a number of observations and experiments, that we might learn something of the relations of the earth and the sun to living plants. We examined the effects of the movements of the earth upon plants ; we studied the effects of light and darkness, the changes of the seasons, the winds and rains, and learned much that is of value in caring for useful plants of all kinds. We have now to consider the home of plants, the soil in which they live and grow. We shall in this book, as in the other, make experiments with real things, and thus learn by direct

Xll INTRODUCTION.

personal observations of nature. We shall learn why and how the soil in which plants grow was made, byobserving the work still going on about us every day. We shall endeavor to find out for ourselves what the soil really is, by trying experiments with it to see how it behaves under certain circumstances. We shall also look at the different kinds of soils, to see which is best suited to our different plants ; and thus save ourselves from the mistake of planting cranberries on a rocky hillside, and watermelons in a peat-bog, or hunting for violets on a sand-bank, or pond-lilies on a mountain-side. We shall see that while there are trees in every State and Territory, these trees are different in different places, and that this difference depends in part upon the ground in which the trees stand. We shall see that it is not sufficient to learn from our observations of the sun, the wind, and rain, how plants are affected by the weather. We must know more. We must learn how plants feed, and where they get the food they need. It is not enough to learn from our first observations, where to place our garden, and how to arrange our plants in a sunny window. We must know how to select the right soil for the garden, and how to treat it, and how to prepare the soil in our flower-pots ; or all our studies and observations will be so many half- facts, — good as far as they go, yet not going far enough. It is to these new studies, experiments, and observations, we now advance, remembering all we learned before, and using our knowledge to explain much that may seem new and strange.

INTRODUCTION. Xlll

When we come to look at the ground closely, we soon learn that it rests upon masses of rocks and stone. Some of these stones are very hard; others are very beautiful, such as the rosy granites, the variegated marbles, and the blue slates. These, we see, are capital building-materials. Other stones are not so beautiful, and make good foundation-stones for our houses ; others are soft, like soapstone ; others split into thin slabs suitable for flagstones ; others can be heated, and will melt, giving iron, copper, and other metals. In still other stones, gold and silver are found. Some stones will burn, some with a bright flame, others with much smoke ; and we call these stones coals. All of these various stones form, with many others, the crust or outside of the earth ; and they are often of great value. At the same time, we must observe here a distinction. The places where these granites, slates, soapstones, marbles, and other stones are blasted, cut, or dug out of the ground, are called quarries. The deep places where the ore-stones and crude metals are obtained are mines. These mines and quarries give us these valuable stones and metals, and so give us wealth. The work of getting them, or, as it is called, of winning them, is the art of mining and the art of quarrying. While we intend to study the ground, these lines of work would only lead us far astray. We are to study the top, or the immediate surface, of the ground; and the art of gathering wealth from this thin skin or outside of the ground, we call agriculture. We are to begin by studying the

XIV INTRODUCTION.

rocks, not as quarrymen or miners, but as farmers and gardeners. From the rocks come all the soils. Thus it is true the world is a great stone picture-book, and he or she who has eyes to see can learn to read its wonderful pages. We cannot leave the book, as long as we live ; we walk over its pages every day, and this ought to make us eager to understand it. It is a book full of wonders, full of strange and curious things; -and, while men have been reading this book of the world for thousands of years, they have never found the end of the delightful story.

TALKS ABOUT THE SOIL.

Chapter I. The Earth's Clothing

I. THE FIRST OBSERVATIONS.— We each of us live in a house. It may be a house in a city, and one of a block, or it may stand quite alone in the open country. Perhaps we have only one or two rooms in a hotel or apartment-house. It may be only a log house with one door and two windows. Whatever it is, we call it our home, the place where we live. We see that it is made of wood or stone, bricks, iron, marble, or other materials ; and we know that some one put these together to make our dwelling. We know it is an artificial structure. It was not found all finished like a smooth bowlder in the fields, neither did it grow out of the ground like a tree. We look about the house, and very soon find it is resting on something. We can even go into the cellar, and find the very base of the whole thing. Under the house, whether it is in town or country, is the ground ; and this we recognize was not made by men.

We go outside the house, and find that the ground on which our home stands extends in every direction as far as we can see. To learn the truth concerning any natural object, we must study it, look at it from every side. Here is a natural object, immense in extent, of extraordinary variety in point of form, color, and quality. Let us leave our houses, which are only artificial affairs, and of less interest, and examine this great natural object, — the ground.

Perhaps we live in New York City, say in a cross town street below Central Park. We start out upon an exploring expedition, determined to take a good look at the world, and see what we can learn about it. Not very promising at first sight. Smooth flat stones on the walk, rough oblong stones in the street. W 7 e see at once that this is all artificial, and that the real earth is covered up out of sight. We walk on in either direction, and perhaps soon find a place where the street has been torn up for repairs, or where a cellar is being prepared for a house. Nothing but gray stones, glistening here and there with specks of silvery mica. Then the ground beneath the streets and houses is rock. That is one bit of truth. Is it the whole truth ? Walk or ride down town as- far as Astor Place, and then look about for a place where the roadway or a cellar is opened. Here is something very different. There are no stones to be seen ; and in place of steam drills and blasting-powder to break open the hard rocks, the workmen here use shovels to dig up the loose yellow sand. If the cellar is deep, we see the sand is laid in layers and curious streaks and lines, and that it appears to extend to an indefinite depth. We have learned another truth : The ground is rough rock that splits into irregular slabs, or is loose sand. We have not travelled a mile, and already we have learned two facts. We have also learned that one observation was not enough. The second observation showed that we should be entirely wrong if we concluded, from the first observation, that the entire world was made of splintery rock full of sparkling mica. It is clear we must go on, or make still another mistake. Already we have learned a good rule in observing nature : The whole truth is found only after many observations.

If you live in Chicago, or Portland, Me., or Portland, Ore., or in some other place, look about in the streets, — or if your home is in the country, around the house, — and make four observations, in four different directions, and find out whether the ground is rock or sand or something else. If we are in New York, we may extend our explorations a little farther. Walking west through the street, we come in time to the Hudson River. From the end of the docks we can look across the water, and see a steep wall of dark rock stretching along the bank of the river. There are trees and perhaps houses to be seen on top ; and at the foot of the black cliffs, near the water, there appears to be a gentle slope covered with trees or grass. We know that this wall of rock is called the Palisades, and even at this distance we can see that the great masses of rock must be of a very different kind from the whitish-gray rocks in New York. Another bit of truth : All rocks are not of the same kind and color. Another day we might go up the river above Yonkers, and cross over to the Palisades, and make a regular study of them, and find that there are many singular and interesting things to be learned from them. Just now we must go farther afield, and take a wider look over the ground.

We cross the river to Hoboken, and taking the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western road, go towards the Orange Mountains. After passing the tunnel under the Palisades, we come out on an immense flat, covered with tall grass and crossed by winding rivers, and we recognize the great Hackensack meadows. Then, the ground is not all rock or sand. By the edge of the reedy banks we see the black oozy peat and river mud. Disagreeable ! Why, no ! nothing is disagreeable if we look at it in a scientific spirit. This great fiord is one of the most peculiar places in the world, and has much to tell us of the greatest interest, had we time to stop. See that hill off to the north, like an island in this green sea. That's a bit of the Palisades left out there by itself. That, too, could tell us a long story. We ride on through Newark, and come to pleasant villages. Observe the country roads and the ploughed fields. The ground is red, and the low places wet and muddy. Here is something new, — something very different from the meadows, or the rocks in the city.

Another day we may take the New- Haven road, and go out as far as Stamford in Connecticut. Here we find something wholly different. The land is hilly. There are very few level meadows, except along the shore of the sound. Through the grass in the fields appear many gray rocks covered with moss and lichens. The roads are gray and stony and the fields have none of that uniform red color we saw in New Jersey, but show every shade of brown and dark yellow. Another day we may take the Long- Island Railroad, and go out towards Far Rockaway. Here is quite another country, more level, with whiter fields and more sandy roads. Still another expedition may take us up the Hudson by boat, and in two or three hours we are sailing among steep mountains covered everywhere with forests.

These observations of different places about New York show us that the surface of the earth is full of variety in shape, in color, and character. The ground is composed in part of rocks, of sand and gravel, and many other things. If you are unable to make these journeys about New York, look around your home, wherever it may be, and you will discover that the ground varies in color, surface, and in materials, in every place. You may live upon a prairie, where all the ground seems, as far as you can see, to be everywhere the same ; yet even here there will be differences between one field and another. Examine the country about your home in four different directions, — north, south, east, and west, as far as you can conveniently walk or ride, — and make notes of all you see concerning the surface of the ground. Note whether it be level or hilly, whether there are mountains near or in sight, or whether there be only low rounded hills and winding valleys. Note also the color of the roads and ploughed fields. Put the date, the names and distances of the places, and all these facts, on the report, and, having signed it, put it away in a safe place. The day may come when you will be glad to refer to it again.

We have learned that the surface of the world exhibits great variety in form and color. We must now take up a regular series of observations to find out the cause of this variety. The most important is the actual surface or form, — whether it be flat, or gently sloping, or steep and rough. The color of the ground is of use in helping us to study it ; but just now it is of less importance, and we will look at the surface only. In making these observations, it will be well also to observe the direction in which the ground slopes, — whether it be towards the sun at noon, or away from it in some other direction.

II. THE BONES OF THE WORLD. — We know that animals, fishes, and birds have bones. These bones united in various ways form the creature's skeleton, and upon the form of the skeleton depends the form or shape of the living creature. We might conclude that the surface of the ground was in like manner dependent upon some interior skeleton or bony structure. In one sense this is true, and in another it is not exactly true. The hills and mountains have been called the "bones of the earth," because they are formed of rock over which is spread a thin layer of soil in which all plants grow. Here and there on the higher and steeper parts, as at the top of the Palisades on the Hudson and other hills or mountains, the rocks are bare ; and people have said that the bare bones of the hills can at such places be seen. This is an interesting idea, and is good because it helps us to get at the real truth. All high hills and mountains are made of rock. The bare spots plainly show this, and every mine or oil-well sunk in the hills shows only solid rock, or the remains of rocks, as far down as men have ever been able to bore. The rocks are the bones of the hills. They are really much more.

A skeleton, as any visit to a museum will show us, is composed of bones arranged in a particular order, — the bones of a dog being arranged in one way, the bones of a pickerel in quite another way. There are spaces between the bones, and we recognize that every creature's skeleton is a framework held together by the creature's muscles and soft parts. It is quite different with a mountain. It is composed of rock, but the rock is in a mass. There is no framework ; and, except in shape, the rocky mass of one hill may be just like another. Thus we see that the rocks do not form a true skeleton for the hills or mountains. They are simply masses of rock ; and their shape or outside surface depends upon many different things, some of them quite independent of the rocks themselves.

This idea of the rocks being skeletons of the hills, we thus see, is a purely fanciful notion.

A mere fancy may suggest a truth. The hills and mountains are gigantic masses of rock. What of the meadows, the sandy wastes along the shore, the wide prairies where not a stone as big as a walnut can be found ? Is there no rocky frame to these level parts of the world ? Certainly. The whole exterior surface of the earth is rock. Under the prairie, under the seas, under the wide pine-barrens of the South, lie the deep rocks, the foundations that hold up all we can see of the world. A vast shell of rock really makes the skeleton of the earth. What is under the stony frame, we do not know ; perhaps more rock to the very centre of the planet. Perhaps the rock is glowing / white with heat. In the coal-mine we found it very / warm. Volcanoes and hot springs plainly show there is heat and fire somewhere below the ground. Where, no one can tell. Perhaps no man will ever know. It does not matter. The rocky shell that completely covers all from sight, securely holds us up ; and upon its surface we live and work. At times there are movements and earthquakes ; yet the planet, as a whole, keeps quiet and secure. The rocks make the great bone-like frame of the earth, and it is these rocks we are first to study. Over a living skeleton is always flesh and skin, clothing it all from sight. So it is with the earth. The rocky frame of the globe is covered with an outside skin of the greatest beauty. This skin or outside part is called the soil. It covers nearly all

THE EARTH'S CLOTHING. g

the rocky floor of the continents from sight, and upon it we live ; and from it come plants, each having a value and beauty of its own after its kind. This skin, or mask, that hides the rocks that cover all the planet is, compared with the whole thickness of the earth, infinitely thin. It is at best only a few feet deep, often only a few inches deep. It is as if we had placed a blanket of the thinnest cloth over the back of the largest elephant we could find. The rocky crust of the earth, from the top of the highest mountain to the bottom of the deepest mine, compared with the thickness of the earth from the surface to the centre, is as one is to four hundred. If the crust we are able to measure is only ¥ ^o °f tne thickness to the centre, how thin is the soil compared, with the mass of the earth ? However, we are ourselves but specks and mites compared with the whole mass of the globe, so we need not trouble ourselves concerning the comparative thinness of the skin of our planet-home. We wish now to study the many-colored coat of the world, and to do this we must begin with the rocks. We wish to study the soil, because from it come plants, fruits, clothing, foods, flowers, and wealth; and the soil is the child of the rocks.

in. SURFACE INDICATIONS. — The miner prospecting through the country in search of valuable metals is guided in part by what he calls the " surface indications." If the water in the brooks is deep red, there may be iron in the hills. If bits of worn and weathered coal lie half hid in the grass at the foot of a cliff, then the edge of the coal-seam may crop out somewhere far up the mountain-side, from whence these stray bits of coal rolled down. If the man is looking for potters' clay, he studies the low places to see where the water has collected in muddy pools ; after the rain-water has dried from the pools and shallows, he sees the ground has cracked into irregular fissures. The man looking for fine white sand for making glass examines the road-sides, and exposed places along the railroad-cuttings, for traces of sandheaps. All these are marks or indications on the surface, giving hints of what may be found beneath the ground. We, in like manner, are prospecting for good soils; and we must first of all look out for surface indications.

Let us understand the matter clearly. Everywhere beneath the ground is solid rock continuous around the entire world. If the ground were everywhere level, as in some of our Western States, we might never know this till we came to dig down through the soil in search of coal or metals. Very likely, if the whole world were level, we might never have heard of these things. Fortunately the ground is not everywhere level. In many places the surface is crumpled up into ridges and knobs, so that the rocks with all their metals, coal, and mineral wealth, are in sight and often in easy reach. These raised places are the hills and mountains, and they form our first surface indications.

What is the character of the country about your

THE EARTH'S CLOTHING. II

home ? Is it level like a prairie for many miles in all directions ? Is it a valley between hills ? Is it directly among the hills or mountains, or are there many low hills with small valleys ? Walk or ride about in different directions, and get at the facts in your case; and put it all down in your note-book, with the date and place of the observation.

Another indication may be found in the plants. Is the country about your home covered with forests, or are there cultivated fields and grassy pastures, with occasional groves of trees? Are there bare places where no plants grow ? Do the wild plants and grasses grow rapidly in the summer, or are the wild plants small and stunted, and of feeble growth? Examine the plants and trees, both in fields and gardens, and put down in your note-book every thing you observe.

If there are streams near by, look at the water. Is it clear or muddy, and what is its usual color ? If you live near the sea or the great lakes, note this also. Observe the ploughed fields and gardens. Is the land wet and sticky after a rain, or does all the water quickly disappear from the surface as soon as the storm has passed ? What is the color of the ground about your home? All these things are surface indications, and should be noted, and the records kept for future reference. By their aid we shall be able, in due time, to decide upon the value of any soil we may see, with a certain degree of confidence. If we understand the surface indications of the soil, we shall be able to tell pretty closely whether any field or farm is valuable or worthless ; whether it will give us good crops, or only poor and unprofitable returns for our labor. To make these surface indications of value, we must first study the past history of the world, and endeavor to find out how the various soils that cover the rocky frame of our planet were made. The soil is the child of the rocks. The rocks appear through the surface of the ground, among the hills and mountains. It is, therefore, to the hills we must look for information concerning this varied and beautiful garment of the world, we call the soil.