xt763x83jm1q https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt763x83jm1q/data/mets.xml Peter, Robert, 1805-1894. 1883 books b97-22-37599558 English Yeoman Press, : Frankfort : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Geology Kentucky. Geology, Economic Analysis. Comparative views of the composition of the soils, limestones, clays, marls, &c., &c., of the several geological formations of Kentucky-- / by Robert Peter. text Comparative views of the composition of the soils, limestones, clays, marls, &c., &c., of the several geological formations of Kentucky-- / by Robert Peter. 1883 2002 true xt763x83jm1q section xt763x83jm1q
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF KENTUCKY.
JOHN R. PROCTER, DiacroR.
COMPARATIVE VIEWS OF THE COMPOSITION
OF THE
SOILS, LIMESTONES, CLAYS, MARLS, &C., &C.,
OF THK
SEVERAL GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS
OF KENTUCKY,
AS SHOWN BY THE CHEMCAL ANALYSES PUBLISHED IN THE SEVERAL
REPORTS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE STATE.
WITH REMARKS ON THEIR CHARACTERS AND PRACTICAL USES.
BY ROBERT PETER, M. D.,
CHEMIST TO KENTUCKY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, STATE CIIEMIST, PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS
AND CHEMISTRY Di KENTUCKY STATE COLLEGE, &C. &C.
1883.
ELECTROTYPED FOR THE SURVEY BY JOHN D. WOODS, PUBLIC PRINTER, FRANKFORT, KY.
This page in the original text is blank.
INTRODUCTORY LETTER.
LABOPATORY OF KENTUCKY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
AND OF KENTUCKY STATE COLLEGE,
LEXINGTON, KY., April, 1883.
MR. JOHN R. PROCTER,
Director of Kentucky Geological Survey, &c.,
DEAR SIR: I herewith send you such comparative views of
the composition of the Soils, Limestones, Clays, Marls. &c.,
of Kentucky as I have been able to obtain from the various
characteristic specimens which have been analyzed in this
laboratory during the progress of our Geological Survey, from
its commencement in i854, under the late Dr. D. D. Owen,
down to the time of the latest published report of the work
of she Survey.
Yours, respectfully,
ROB'T PETER.
This page in the original text is blank.
A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE SOILS ON THE
VARIOUS GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS
OF KENTUCKY.
In the study of Kentucky soils, and the numerous chemical
analyses which have been made of them during the progress
of the Geological Survey of the State, some facts of interest
have been ascertained.
That all soils have been primarily produced by the disinte-
gration of rock strata is now universally admitted. But, as
the debris of rocks is continually transported, by water and
other agencies, from higher to lower levels, and as, during the
so-called glacial epochs of geological history, the bodies of ice,
which covered a great portion of our northern hemisphere,
caused the transfer of an immense amount of these soil mate-
rials, few localities present any large area of soil which has
been formed where it is at present found by the decomposition
of the rock strata in place.
Kentucky is quite exceptional in this respect, as compared
with the extensive regions to the north and west of our State.
lThe valley of the Ohio river seems to have been the limit
beyond which could not be carried the great mass of mixed
materials-clay, sand, gravel, and bowlders of all sizes-de-
rived generally from rocks in place in the far Northwest, which
cover the surface on this whole vast territory, so that the
superficial deposit which constitutes the soil generally bears
no relationship to the rock strata beneath.
Most of the soils of Kentucky have been formed from the
rock strata of their immediate vicinity, being what are termed
Sedectary soils, and hence generally show a relationship in
composition to the geological formations on which they rest,
except such of them found in the valleys and low grounds of
the rivers and streams, made up of more recently transported
materials, which come under the name of alluvial soils.
COMPARATIVE VIEWS OF THE COMPOSITION
Kentucky is somewhat peculiar in another important circum-
stance. lThe superficial rocks from which her soils were pro-
duced seem, with very few exceptions, as in the case of the
coarse sandstones and conglomerate rocks of our coal-meas-
ure strata, to have been primarily deposited and formed under
the waters of a primeval ocean, at such a distance from the
shores, and under such circumstances, as that none but earthy
or sandy materials in the finest state of division, entered into
their composition, and large relative proportions of lime, mag-
nesia, clay, phosphates, &c., are found in them. Pebbles,
gravel, coarse sand, or fragments of rock are rarely present,
except in some of the soils of the coal-measures. In most
cases, in the large number of soils analyses which have been
made of Kentucky soils during the progress of the Geological
Survey, the dry earth passed wholly through a sieve having
sixty-four meshes to the centimeter square; and, after this
fine earth had been submitted to the solvent action of acids,
the remaining "1 sand and insoluble silicates " were fine enough
to pass through a fine sieve having about i,6oo meshes to
the centimeter square-finer than ordinary bolting-cloth. In-
deed, this silicious residue of our best soils is so fine that it
is not generally recognized as sand, and although it is readily
permeated by water, it presents some of the adhesive and
absorptive properties of clay. Sand, so-called, is not to be
found in the beds of the local streams where this soil prevails,
and building sand must be imported.
MANY CONDITIONS MUST CONCUR TO GIVE FERTILITY TO SOILS.
I. Meteorological.-The climate, as to temperature, amount
of rain-fall, &c., &c., presents important conditions essential
to fertility.
2. Location.-Land at the bottom of a slope receives the
washings and finer, richer materials from the uplands. It is
well known that the atmospheric and soil waters, passing
through continually, carry these fertilizing materials to the
lower levels. The upper slopes are thus continually leached
and impoverished, while, as is sometimes observed in our own
100
OF THE SOILS, LIMESTONES, CLAYS, MARLS, &C.
State, the soil on the high level summits of hills is richer than
that of the inclined valleys which drain their flanks.
3. Drainage.-No soil sodden with water can be productive
of crops, however rich it may be in the elements of fertility.
Kentucky is peculiarly fortunate in the fact that the great
body of her soils are naturally drained. This is especially
the case in the so-called - Blue Grass" soil, which, on some-
what elevated table-land, is underlaid by limestone containing
numerous crevices and caverns, which carry off the surplus
water. But in some few localities, especially where the black
slate formation prevails, the disintegration of which produces
a tough clay very retentive of water, the injurious effects of
too much water are evident. The soil may be found to be
quite rich in the elements of plant food, but is not correspond-
ingly productive for want of drainage.
No better example of this can be given than that of a soil
in Wayne county, based on the Sub-carboniferous Limestone
formation, collected by the late Dr. Owen, and analyzed by
the present writer in i856 (see Rept. Ky. Geol. Surv., 0. S.,
vol. 2, p. 273), which has the chemical composition of quite a
rich soil, and is almost black because of its more than 21 per
cent. of organic and volatile matters, but which was unpro-
ductive for "d want of draining and access of air "-in the lan-
guage of Dr. Owen, who added that with the aid of lime and
a proper system of drainage, Ad I venture to predict it will
become one of the most productive soils in the State."
Extensive experience in England, and in the older settled
regions of this country, has demonstrated the great utility
of underdraining the soil. Without attempting to describe
the best methods of underdraining land, we will briefly state
some of its benefits: I. In allowing the excess of water to
escape continually, it not only removes this one cause of ster-
ility, but tends to increase the porosity of the soil and the
area through which the roots of plants may spread and obtain
nourishment. 2. Because the body of the soil, during the
growing season, is constantly colder than the superincumbent
atmosphere, a current of cold air is continually flowing out of
10I
COMPARATIVE VIEWS OF THE COMPOSITION
the open mouths of the drain pipes, which is supplied by
warmer air from above. This continued slow circulation of
air through the cool soil not only causes the drained soil to
become earlier warmed in the spring than the undrained
soil, but brings to the growing vegetation a constant supply of
the gases and vapors of the atmosphere which are essential
to plant growth. The warm air, full of vapor of water, also
deposits in the soil a considerable amount of water, which is
condensed on passing through the colder soil; so that the
underdrained soil does not suffer so much from droughts as
the undrained. 3. The abundant supply of air also favors
those chemical changes of decomposition and recomposition
by which the elements of fertility are brought into an available
condition for the nourishment of plants.
4. Physical conditions.-The soil, to be fertile, must be in a
state of fine division; coarse sand, gravel, or fragments of
rock give little or no plant nourishment, and are usually ex-
cluded, by all agricultural chemists, from their estimate of the
value of a soil. The " fine earth" only is taken into account
or analyzed. Thus, in the annexed table of soil averages,
the conglomerate soils, which contain an average of 20.7 per
cent. of gravel or pebbles, must have their estimated value
(based on the analyses of their "fine earth") discounted in
this proportion. So, in the comparison of our rich "Blue
Grass" soil with the very rich volcanic soil of Auvergne (see
tables), a discount of i6 per cent. must be made from the
latter for the same reason.
Moreover, as a large proportion of the food of plants is
derived from the atmosphere directly or indirectly, no soil,
however rich it may be, can be very productive unless it is in
a porous condition. On this fact, fully demonstrated by long
experience, are based many of the practices of the husband-
man in stirring, loosening, and cultivating the soil, especially
during the growing season.
5. Chemical conditions.-Soils, to be fertile. must contain clay
and fine sand, mixed in such proportions as that, while readily
permeable by water, they may yet be, to a certain degree,
102
OF THE SOILS. LIMESTONES, CLAYS, MARLS, &C.
adhesive. Pure sand and pure clay do not offer favorable con-
ditions for vegetable growth; such a mixture of them as forms
what is called a loam soil is generally considered the best.
Fertile soils must also contain a certain proportion of organic
matters, known generally by the name of humus, a mixture of
substances derived from the decay of vegetable and animal
matters, which gives the dark color to the soil as compared
with the subsoil and the almost black hue to the rich garden
mould. Humus makes the soil more light and porous, and
possesses the power of absorbing the gases and vapors of the
atmosphere, water, and dissolved natural fertilizers in a higher
degree than any other ingredient of the soil. Undergoing a
gradual oxidation, it furnishes carbonic acid, nitrogen com-
pounds, and water, and by the ozone it forms during this pro-
cess, favors the production of nitrogen compounds from the
atmospheric elements. It holds ammonia, potash, phosphates,
&c., against the leaching action of the atmospheric waters,
yielding them readily to the rootlets of plants, and, by the
acids it produces, in its ulterior state of decomposition, it aids
in dissolving the essential mineral elements of the soil, mak-
ing them available for plant food.
It has been the fashion, in recent times, to underrate the
value of humus in the soil, blindly following the teachings of
Liebig. who gave too exclusive importance to the mineral ele-
ments of fertility; but practical experience is corroborated by
scientific investigation in giving a high value to humus as an
ingredient of a fertile soil. -The latest conclusions of agri-
cultural chemists are, that the excess of nitrogen in the crop
over that contained in the soil is caused by the action, on the
atmospheric elements, of the carbonaceous matters of the
soil" (the humus).-Quoted from article " TERRES ARABLES
in Wurtz's Dictionnaire de Chemie, &c.
In this connection we are tempted to quote from a recent
publication of Peter Henderson, of New York, one of the most
experienced and enlightened gardeners in the country, the
results of his observations and practical experiments. After
stating that the concentrated commercial fertilizers "will not
103
COMPARATIVE VIEWS OF THE COMPOSITION
do" for any great length of time to maintain fertility without
the aid of stable manure, or some other means of improving
what he terms the "physical condition of the soil," he states:
"hence experienced market gardeners near New York rotate
their fields." Of twenty acres they keep five in grain, clover,
and grass, " to be broken up successively every second or third
year, so as to get the land in the condition that nothing else
but rotted, pulverized sod will accomplish." (Humsus.) "This
is done where the land is worth five hundred dollars per acre.
Experience having proved that with one quarter of the land
resting under grass more profit can be got than if the whole
were under culture." And this in the region where they
habitually apply several hundred dollars' worth of commer-
cial fertilizers to the acre per annum.
In our newer country, where land is cheap, too little atten-
tion is paid to fallow and rotation of crops, which both may
serve to renew the humus which has been removed in the cul-
tivation of the hoed crops. Fallow, or allowing the land to
rest, need not be a "s naked fallow," or letting it rest with no
other crop but weeds, but could more profitably be a "green
fallow," combined with rotation when clover or grass are cul-
tivated, to be fed to stock, and subsequently plowed under to
increase the amount of humus and otherwise improve the soil.
And when small grain of any kind is raised in the rotation,
the straw, instead of being burnt up out of the way of the
farmer, could be more profitably used on the English plan, in
a so-called straw-yard, where it is fed to stock and trampled
into valuable manure, to be hauled to the fields in the early
spring.
It is now a well-established fact that cultivated soils require
constant renewal of their elements of fertility, especially when
the crops are habitually removed, and no return of manures
are made to the soil. How most economically to effect this
renewal is a practical question with most farmers, and one of
great interest to the agricultural chemist.
Besides the humus and certain other atmospheric elements
above mentioned, certain other ingredients, called the mineral
104
OF THE SOILS, LIMESTONES, CLAYS, MARLS, &C.
elements of fertility, are equally indispensable to the fertility
of the soil and to vegetable growth. These are phosphoric
acid, potash, lime, magnesia, sulphur, chlorine, iron, and oth-
ers, in such a state of combination as to be available for plant
nourishment.
Of these, all are alike essential as necessary elements in the
composition of the vegetable. Yet, as some of theni are found
in very small proportions in soils, and are habitually carried
off in the crops, such as the phosphoric acid and potash, the
practical agriculturist holds these as the most essential, know-
ing that the other essential elements of the soil are usually
present in it in inexhaustible quantities, or are continuously
supplied from the atmosphere. Hence the value of a com-
mercial fertilizer, in renovating an exhausted soil, depends
mainly on its relative quantities of available phosphoric acid,
of potash, and of nitrogen compounds, especially, also, because
these ingredients only will bear the cost of transportation to
any great distance, and the others are frequently to be found
near the farm.
The farmer who consumes most of his products at home
has usually little need of any fertilizers but those which are
furnished by his stables, compost heaps, or cess-pools, properly
utilized; or by a judicious rotation of crops and feeding of his
stock on his fields. But the commercial farmer, whether he
cultivates that most exhausting and damaging crop, tobacco,
or annually exports his cotton, hemp, potatoes, corn, or other
grain, or simply sells his live stock raised on the farm, corres-
pondingly robs his soil of its essential elements of fertility,
and, especially if he does not rotate his crops, must resort to
commercial fertilizers to maintain its productiveness. The
nature and quantity of these will depend on the composition
of his soil and the character of his products sold off the farm;
but available phosphates, compounds of potash, and nitrogen
compounds are their most valuable ingredients. Marls, when
near at hand, may be advantageously employed, in quantity,
to modify the physical character of soils, and to supply lime
when deficient, and potash and phosphates in some cases.
I05
COMPARATIVE VIEWS OF THE COMPOSITION
Lime, ground or burnt and slacked, proves useful also on
some soils, especially when, like the blue limestone, it contains
notable proportions of phosphates, potash, &c.; but both of
these will not bear long transportation.
Although the clay and the sand of the soil are not actually
elements of plant food, yet they, in proper mixture, are essen-
tial in furnishing the medium in and by which they obtain
nourishment and growth, while the iron oxide which enters
into the composition of the vegetable is almost always pres-
ent in superabundance in the soil. The oxide of iron aids
essentially in facilitating decomposition of organic matters, in
the formation of fertilizing nitrogen compounds and by its
great absorptive power. It is doubted by most agricultural
chemists whether silica (the material of sand) is an essential
article of plant food; yet it is present in notable quantity in
all plants, especially in those of the family of grasses, and in
the form of sand is necessary to the porous structure of soil.
WHAT IS THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF A FERTILE SOIL
This question may be answered by reference to the ap-
pended Tables. (See Summary of the Averages of t/he Ken-
tucky Soils from Different Geological Formations, &c.) The
composition represented by the mean of the averages of the
234 Kentucky soils which were taken for comparison, repre-
sents, no doubt, that of soil of rather more than average fertil-
ity.
According to Mr. P. De Gasparin (a well known French
authority):
0.20 per cent. of phosphoric acid in a soil makes it . very rich.
0.10 per cent and upwards makes it...... .. .. . rich.
0.05 per cent. makes it..... ... .... .. .. poor.
Between 0.1 and 0.05 per cent. makes it .. .. . ... . medium.
Schloessing's average of phosphoric acid in soils is O. 1 7 per
cent. The richest volcanic soils contain o.6o per cent., and
the poorest soils quoted by Gasparin had only o.og or less per
cent.
The proportions of potash, in relation to fertility, vary in
nearly the same manner. Mr. P. De Gasparin, in his "T raite
105
OF THE SOILS, LIMESTONES, CLAYS, MARLS, &C.
107
des Terres Arables," gives the proportion of O.14 per cent. of
potash as a normal average quantity, and quotes, in the case
of the volcanic soil of the vineyard of Lacryma-Christi, on the
flanks of Vesuvius, the enormous percentage of 3.47 of pot-
ash in the fine earth. This, however, is to be discounted by
34. per cent. for pebbles present in this soil. Our richest Blue
Grass soil or subsoil sometimes contains more than 0.70 per
cent. in the virgin soil, and upwards of i.oo per cent. in the
subsoil or under-clay, and has no pebbles. The poorest Ken-
tucky soil analyzed contains only 0.02I per cent. of potash.
By reference to the appended tables of the relative compo-
sition of the richest and poorest soils of Kentucky, and the
examples of foreign soils which "are very fertile," the signifi-
cance of the other tables of the composition of the soils on
the several geological formations of Kentucky may be readily
appreciated:
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II
REVIFW OF THE AVERAGES OF COMPOSITION
OF THE KENTUCKY SOILS ON THE SEV-
ERAL GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS.
i. Alluvial Soils.-Made up of the finer and richer materi-
als of the uplands; present, generally, more than the average
proportions of essential elements and conditions, except that
in the Ohio Valley soils organic matters are somewhat below
average in some. The Mississippi Valley soils contain more
organic matters, clay, carbonate of lime, phosphoric acid, and
magnesia than the Ohio river soils. These latter have more
potash.
2. Quaternary Soils.-Have less than average organic mat-
ters and of phosphoric acid; enough alumina and iron oxide,
lime and magnesia, and average potash.
3. The Coal Measures Soils.-Present, generally, an aver-
age composition, to be discounted by variable quantities of
fragments of rock or gravel.
4. The Conglomerate Soils.-Contain less than the average
of all the essential elements; more than the average of sand
and insoluble silicates, and are to be discounted by variable
proportions of pebbles, gravel. &c. Yet no soil is so poor
that it may not be made productive by the judicious use of
fertilizers, if it has sufficient drainage.
T. The Uppper Sub-carboniferous Soils.-Contain less than
the average of organic matters, but in other respects pre-
sent nearly an average composition.
6. The Lower Sub-carboniferous Soils.-Contain nearly aver-
age proportions, except that their carbonate of lime and pot-
ash are somewhat below, and their sand and insoluble silicates
exceed slightly. Gravel in variable, generally small, propor-
tions, is sometimes present.
7. Waverly Soils.-Contain less t