and those who hold it will have performed their duty, if they maintain. it in that condition.

The soil is the real capital of the State; other interests are artificial or secondary, proceeding from this. They occupy, it is true, more of the attention of Government; but this does not change the fact that the products of the soil are the basis of all the other interests. The National Congress has protected, and will continue to protect commerce, and at times it has favored manufactures; but the business of agriculture has been, and probably will be, left principally to itself. The farmer cannot too soon conclude that he must take care of himself, or no one will.

The most effectual mode of doing this, is by preserving his soil-this great gift of nature-at or near its original strength. There is nothing more important to his pecuniary success, or to his comfort, than the adoption of this rule. Its consequence must be firmly impressed upon his mind, in a practical operative sense. He must realize that his soil will no more retain its strength without food, than his horse or his cattle.

The reason why all farmers do not feel that such is the fact, is because the process of debility in one case is slow-in the other more rapid, but not less certain. How many farms are there in Ohio, that have been worked thirty years without feeding, or while one generation of its occupants has run its course? Their owners find no difficulty in realizing that, day by day and hour by hour, they are certainly approaching the tomb, but forget that a good soil declines toward sterility, under constant use, faster than human life verges to its close.

As a question of political economy, what can be more prominent than the proposition to raise the greatest amount of produce with the least cost?

The true value of each acre is based upon the difference of these items in the shape of profits; and, if of one acre, so of all the territory within the State. Every crop removed takes away something, and consequently in a few years the yield is less. The taxes, seed, labor of cultivation, and cost of purchase, remain fixed, but the return diminishes year by year.

If there was at first a fair profit, the whole difference comes out of it, and soon a most fatal point is reached, where the cost and expenses of production are just equal to the yield. Of what value is a farm that merely pays in harvest, what it has cost during the year?

The farmer has no book of account with his premises, as the merchant has with his merchandize, and does not always discover the dangerous condition of his affairs. He works as hard as ever, plows and sows as much ground, his family are economical and industrious, but instead of laying up money, he is often troubled for the want of it. He attributes his troubles to a poor market, the fly, the drouth, or anything but bad farming. But his capital is gone. He is broke, but does not know it. His farm really produces him nothing. He dies; his admin: strators un

dertake for him a settlement with himself. His exhausted lands are sold; perhaps his creditors get their just dues; and his heirs are surprised to find themselves without an inheritance or a home.

Instead of one, suppose all the farmers of the State manage in such a manner, how long would the country be inhabited? Look at "old Virginia "—her sons abandoning her soil, because their fathers did not realize the necessity of sustaining it. Who are stepping in to supply their places? A people from the hard frozen north, whose ancestors, with a more meagre soil, left their children a better patrimony, because they sedulously restored, and knew how to restore economically, the exhausting of annual crops.

There are means within the reach of every farmer, of supplying these exhaustions. It is the proper sentiment, or feeling of its practical necessity, that is wanting. There is a choice of means, a better and best and cheapest method of manuring lands; but any mode, even the worst, is immeasurably better than none at all. Those who have the will, will find ways enough to improve their soil. There is room for argument about the manner of doing it; but none as between the doing and the omission. The speaker or writer who shall succeed in vividly impressing the public mind with the overshadowing consequence of maintaining the soil in its native vigor, will have accomplished more in agriculture than any author has done who has written upon the science of cultivation.

There must be in Ohio near 1,500,000 acres of land in wheat, which produces, taking the average of years, about 16 bushels to the acre. In England, on a thinner soil, the average is fixed at 24 bushels per acre, showing that our present yield of that grain might be increased one-half, and no more land be brought into cultivation.

IMPROVEMENT OF SOILS.

The "improvement of the soils of Ohio" must be effected, principally, by the application of some kind of manure, which may be a substance of an animal, vegetable, or mineral nature; or a mixture or compound of them. all. It may be a mere stimulant, calling into action powers of vegetation that are dormant; or it may be vegetable nutriment itself, which is the best form. Applications may be made that have no chemical effect, but merely mechanical, by which a compact and forbidding soil is made lighter, more porous, and a better absorbent of water. Pure sand operates thus on stiff clay soil. The theory of the manner in which various chemical substances promote the growth of plants, is interesting and instructive, but the determination to apply such substances is of far more importance than a knowledge of the theory. The best field of discussion is upon the comparative economy of different manures. In the neighborhood of cities and villages, the farmer may procure, at a reasonable rate, a supply of stable

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or yard manure. But for general use, it is apparent that some other resort must be had, and the most feasible and sufficient one appears to be that of green crops, turned under. Next to this, the use of the rotten material of bogs, marshes, and old mill ponds, made into compost by a mixture of lime or other alkali. No one doubts the policy of returning to the land all straw, hay, stalks and chaff it produces; but this is not always practicable, and if it was, there is still a loss in the grain and roots that go to market, which must be supplied. For different kinds of soil, and different crops, the material abstracted will be different, and also its proportions. In Ohio, it seems to me that there may be a natural classification of the lands, into five agricultural provinces or districts, wherein there is a similarity of soil and productions, and to which a similar course of treatment may be applied.

GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISION OF THE SOIL OF OHIO.

The "character" of our soil, over tracts embracing several counties, as it is indicated by external signs, and by the timber, presents a certain uniformity, by which it may be arranged in districts. These varieties or classes of soil owe their difference to geological causes. Over that part of the State northerly of a line through Hanover, in Columbiana county, New Philadelphia, Newark, Circleville, Lebanon and Hamilton, the "northern drift," sometimes called the quaternary "diluvial," or "superficial" deposits, has exercised a direct influence on the composition of the soil. The forces which brought on this mass of "drift," covering the stratified rocks, in places, 100 and 150 feet in thickness-these forces becoming less powerful toward the south. The materials are finer, along the southern limit which I have marked out, than they are in the northern part of the State.

The drift is generally a “hard pan," of a blue or yellow color; the blue always the lowest, and the yellow uppermost, and is generally the surface deposit. Almost all deep wells, in the drift region, penetrate to the "blue." The hard pans contain lime, especially the blue, and also rotten logs, leaves, sticks and decayed vegetable matter, and furnish a strong but not a very tractable soil.

In other parts of the State, below the drift and boulder line, the soil is affected by the varied composition of the underlying rocks. It should be remembered, also, that near the line of separation, where the northern drift is constantly becoming lighter and lighter, the superficial matter is of a mixed and modified character-a combination of the hard pan and the decayed and disintegrated shells, sandstones and limestones on which it rests.

There are, also, two varieties of the drift portions, of the same geological formation, but which differ externally from the hard pans and drift clays, although they are of the same origin and age.

The highest drift summits are composed of coarse materials, such as gravel, sand, and water-worn stones of all kinds; and the lowest depressions, around and beneath lake Erie, and also lakes Huron, Michigan and Superior, are filled with finer materials, such as clay, fine sand and marl. It should, moreover, be borne in mind, that the lines of division which I lay down between districts are only general and approximate, it being impossible, with such waving and irregular outlines, to define them perfectly.

The State may be divided, agriculturally, as follows:

I. THE COAL REGION.

This embraces about one-third of the State, and is mainly included between the Pennsylvania and Ohio canal, the Ohio canal and the Ohio river. The surface is hilly, without being precipitous; the soil, where it is not affected by drift, is light, easily tilled, produces a good crop, and a good variety of crops. In the southern part of the Reserve counties, and the northern portions of Columbiana, Stark and Wayne, it is modified by the northern drift, and is somewhat variable, but well known for its excellent wheat. The sandstone, shale, iron and limestone strata of the coal region form, when disintegrated, a well tempered soil. The timber of this district is various, like its crops-hickory, oak, beech, sugartree, ash, locust, &c.

II. NORTH OF THE COAL REGION AND THE RESERVE LINE, AND EAST OF THE HURON RIVER.

Here the soil is less tractable, being more clayey, and more hard pan, but of good strength. Its tillage is more expensive than lands further south, its texture more compact, and it does not resist drouth. This region is favorable to grass, more than to annual crops; the people have, therefore, engaged in raising cattle and sheep in preference to grain. There are large parcels of "oak" land, others of "beech and maple," and others of a mixture of these three kinds of timber, all indicating a variety in the soil. On the sandstone ridges and summits, and on gravel knolls, there is chestnut, and on mixed soils, hickory and other trees.

From this general description there should be excepted a belt of low land, bordering the lake, of a few miles in width, beneath the general height of the upland, on which are seen the "lake ridges," or longitudinal banks of sand, and terraces, on which the early settlers laid out their roads.

It is alternately sandy and clayey; its lower stratum at Cleveland and other places being a fine blue marly sand, which is of agricultural value, and of which there is an analysis given below.

III. THE NORTH-WESTERN DISTRICT.

This lies northerly of the summit, or water-shed, between the lake and the river, and westerly of the Huron river. Here is an immense tract of level and gently descending country, with a rich, argillaceous soil, as yet only partially occupied, but destined to rival any portion of Ohio of equal extent. With the exception of some wet savannas, covered with weeds and coarse grass, it is heavily timbered with ash, elm, oak, beech and maple, such as flourish in wet and moist lands. In its wild state, and while the fallen timber, logs and brush obstruct the surface drainage of the water, it appears to be too flat and wet for cultivation; but when cleared of the standing timber, the sun let in, drains opened, and the surface stirred with the plow, it proves to be capable of both tillage and good grass. All of this district is covered with drift, resting on limestone.

IV.

WATERS OF THE SCIOTO AND MIAMIES.

There should be excepted from this sub division a long and narrow territory, bordering on the coal region on the west, and described below as the fifth district.

Passing the height of land, or crest, where the waters flow southerly, it is not long before the traveler perceives that the soil is becoming more dry, light and loamy. A comprehensive description of the south-western portion of Ohio, and south-eastern part of Indiana, drained by the Miamies and the Scioto, might be given in half a line, "as high, rolling land of rich loam." Its rich soil is intended for tillage in Indian corn and other summer crops, and is at the same time capable of producing wheat and grass.

It is peculiarly the "corn region;" but we should also add the allurial valleys of the Muskingum and the Hock-hocking, where this product flourishes fully as well as on the loamy uplands of the south-west.

V. THE BLACK SLATE REGION.

From Ashland, Richland and Wayne counties, southerly, through Knox, Licking, Fairfield, Pickaway, Ross, Pike, Scioto and Adams, there is an irregular belt of land where the rocks below the coal show themselves, the conglomerate, waverly sandstone and black slate of the geological reports. They give, in the hilly portions, a rougher aspect to the country than the coal rocks, presenting more cliffs and steeper valleys. The soil is also affected; and although it is generally loamy on the uplands, it varies from the light loam of the coal region on the east, and the limestone region on the west. Towards the mouth of the Scioto, where the hills become abrupt, in the west part of Pike and Scioto counties, and the eastern portion of Adams, the soil is poorer and thinner than any