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KKLAT10N8

GEOLOGY TO AGRICULTURE

NORTH-EASTKRN AMERICA.

No. II.

By JAMES F. W. JOHNSTON, F.R.S.L. .V i:.,

UON. MEMl.EK OF TUB liOYAL AaUJCVLTVHAL SOCIETY.

LONDON

M DCCC I I I I.

• • ♦ -

• • • •
• « » •

• 4 • • «

• • « •

i"K()M Tin;

.lOUUNAl. OF TIJK HOYAI. ACiHICri.H'K.M. SllCir/rv OK i;N(iL\M),
VOL. XIV., I'AUr !.

• . • •■

* * ■ » • '

. • • •

> « 4 * •

' - • . » .

•• • . •

«... ••,••«..-

uje 'i.

MAP

TO IM.I.HTKATK THE

RELATIONS 01" GEOLOGY TO AGRICULTURE

I»

NORTII-E ASTERN AMF.llICA.

St. Jdkn's River.

SuJol^n^^"

Soils S». 1. .vud U. liiiiiji

s<iii , . \o. in.

^'F

Suil

No. IV. M^S

Siiil . . Xo. V,

Bogs and Swumps . |ffSf

( A

KKLATFONS OF GKOLOGV TO AGHlCUI/rURK

NORTi [-i:asti:ii\ ami: rica.

\\\. RcJations of Gcolor/lcnl Sfruvfnre to A^jncultnml (\inahilifu
ni thelrovutrc ^//' AV/."^ />'/7^/mr/r/^— The' cxmnplcs ol' a cK.sc
ro hifion hotwccn .ireolojric al structure and air,-ic„lturnl (•.-.pahilitv
wl.jcli 1 introduced into the prcccdin- part of this paper,* were
mterostino: to the Kn-lish reader chiefly in their purely scientific
ami economical bearin-s. Relerrin- to the Atlantic border of
the United States, and to the interior of the State of New Vork,
they would come home, if I niaj so ex])ress myself, to few amon-'
ourselves as a matter of directly personal concern. It will he
somewhat dffTerent as re-ards the exam])le I am now ab.)ut to
submit, Jt IS drawn from one of our own Rritish provinces,
where many of us have friends and relatives, and where wide
unoccupied lands exist, to which we may emi-rato witliout
either abandoning our loyalty or ^{yiivr ui) our connexion with
:lie homes of our fatliers.

The province of New Brunswick contains an area of 18 mil-
lions ol acres; much of this is still covered with forests, and
many districts still unexplored even by the lumberer. As repre-
sented in the ^eolojrital ma])s hitherto published, its central part
forms an extensive coal-field, boumh^d on tiie north by a riband
<)1 granitic and of old metainorphic and slate rocks, which runs
diajronally— or m a mntli-east and south-west direction— across
the wliole province. On the south and south-west it is bounded
along the shores of the Bay of Fuudy by a belt of slate ro.ks of
uncertain age, altered and hardened by extensive masses of hard,
intrusive trap, which give an inhospitable and uninvitin- cha-
racter to the region ovc^r which they extend. This coal-field
occupies about one-half of the whole area of \«nv Brunswick •
and, as it is situated in the central part of the province, the rocks'

* Sec this Jouiiuil, vol. xiii. Part I.

I! 2

MAP

TO IlMIgTllATE THP

RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY TO AGRICULTURE

NOllTII-EASTERN AMEllICA.

St. John's River.

St. Jolin^ ^^

Soils Xo. I. and II. mn.

Soil . . No. III. I^^l
Soil . . No. IV. ^Pi
Soil . . No.V.

]

Bogs and Swamps . I^f|§-'1

S C A L K OF M

10 5

To face piKje 3.

HAY I't:
CIIAI.KIUS.

4 Rehtions of Gcohn/}/ tn Af/ricuUnrc

of which it consists impart tlicir prcvailinjj; physical charnctcrs
to the soils of this laijjc portion of the colony.

It may be said uitli truth that tlic extensive prevalrnre ol this
coal-lield in \e\v r.nnis\vi( k forms ah.ue a strikinj; illustration
of the close natural (onnexJon wliich exists between }j<'oloj;i< al
structure and a«iricidtural ( inability. Of <'very cxtenbivo (oal-
fieid tliis mijfht, to sonu; extent, be said ; but there are two
• ircumstances in tonnexicm with th(« coal meas\uvs ot New
Hrunswick, which in an espec ial manner determine the agricul-
tural relations of the soils wiiich rest upcm them.

'I'he first is the chemical nature of the nun\erous beds of rock
of whi.li tliis coal formation consists. 'J'hesc are, for the \\\oj,i
part, \ixvy sandstcmes, sometimes dark and greenish, and some-
times of a pale-yellow colour. The siliceous matter which they
c«mtain is cenu'nted together or mixed with only a small propor-
tion of clav (deiav^'d' felspar principally), so that when these
rocks crund'de, wliich thev readdy do, they form light sods, pale
in colour, easily worke(., little retentive of water, admitting
therefore of being ph/ughed early in spring and late in autumn;
l)ut hungry, greedy of manure, liable to be l)urnt up hi droughty
summers, and less favourable for the production of successive

crops of hay. • i , • i

Of course, among the vast number of beds of varied thickness
which come to the surface in dlfl'ercnt p.arts of this large area,
there are many to which the aboAc general description will
not appl}— some which contain more clay and form stiffer soils ;
and some which, though green or gray internally, weather ol a
red colour, and form reddisli soils : but lightness in texture and
in cohmr forms the distinguishing characteristic of the soils of
the whole formation. The generalization drawn from this single
fact, therefore, gives us already a clear idea of the prevailing
physical character of the soils over a large portion oi the pro-
vince, and illustrates the nature of the broad views which make
the possession of geological maps so valuable to the student of

general agriculture. , i v. i

In other countries, as in England and Scotland, the coal
measures omtain a greater variety of rocks than is found oyer
the carbcmiferous area of New T^runswick. They arc distm-
giiished in our island by the frequent recurrence of beds of orrk-
coloured shale, often of great thickness, which form cold, stiff,
dark-coloured, ])o(n- clays, ^ard to work, and, until thoroughly
<lrained, scarcely -except m rare seasons— remunerating the
farmer's labour. Numerous sandstones do indeed occur, pro-
ducing poor, sandy, and rocky soils ; but it is the conjoined
i)resenci^ of the c()ld clays and the poor sands, which, m the
Ii.idst of their icineral riches, have caused large pintions of the
(ountics of Durham and N(nthumberland to remain among the

■*■

in North' luistcri) Anicrini.

Icit* t-atriicultmally fx'lvan. <'<1 and hast-produ tivc pnrts f tlio
low .•oiintrj ol Ciroat Britain.

TIk! s'Toiul tircumstaiicc hy wliic li the ajrvit iiltinal r 'latl.iiis uS'
this portion <.i' New lirunswick \\n\ dcttMinincf!, is 1» i.nd ia its
p;<'n.>ral piiysiral conformation. It \i thstiuijiiishcd l)y a {jcnf?ral
flatness ol' si:rl".ico: it undul-itos Icrv* and there, indeed, and is
intersected l>y rivers and occasional h-tkcs ; hut it consists lorth;;
most part ol" tahh'-lands more or less elevated, over which forests,
ciuelly of pine-timher, extend in every direction. This gener;il
flatness is owin;,^ to the small inclination of the sandstone strata
on which the country rests, and to tlie small numlxr of strikin!;;
pliysical distuihanc(!s to which, as a wlude, they 1 ave been suh-
jected. Tiiesc level tracts of land are not unfrequently stcmy,
covered with blocks of fi^rey sandstone of various sizes, amonij;
which the trees jj^row luxuriantly, and from nmonu^ which the
settler may reap a first crop of corn, hut which almost defy tiie
labour of man to bring the land info a fit condition for the
j)loug!i. It is chiefly on the borders of the coal-field, however,
that these ston; iracts occur, as if the disturbances, to which the
neigh bourin.'j;' rocks have in many places been •^ubjected, had
broken up the edges of the sandstone strata, a: A '< c+tered their
fragments over the adjoiiiing surface.

A characteristic feature which results from this physical flat-
ness is the occurrence of frequent bogs, swamps, cjirriboo plains,
and sandy barrens. The waters which fall in rain or accumulate
from the mcdted snow rest oi the flat lands, fdl the hollows, and,
for wrnt of an outlet, stagnate, causing tlie growth of mosses and
of plants of various other kinds, to which such swampy places
are jnopitious. Thus bogs and barrens, more or less extensive,
are prvxluced., and these greatly modify the natural agricultural
relations of the sur^^ace.

Thus the geological age, the chemical composilicm, and the
physical disposition of this coal region, in reality appear almost
equally to conspire in producing the peculiar general agricul-
tural character of the central half of the province of New Bruns-
wick. To this conjoined influence of important modifying causes
I shall again advert before the close of the present article.

But J\ew Brunsv/ick also presents exam})les of the most
striking and immediate dependence of agricultural value upon
geological structure alone. On the outskirts of the coal field,
and rising up from beneath its edges, appear red sandstones
and|red conglomerates, associated with limestones, red marls, and
gypsum. These give rise to soils of a remarkably fertile cha-
racter, in the midst generally of .scenery of a most picturesqu*!
description. In such localities rock and soil so close'y accompany
each other, that the most sceptical is compelled to admit that t!ie

Relations of Gcoloi/ii to Af/ricultinc

change in forest trees, in character of soil, and in nature of rock,
arc at once siniultaneous and determined by a common cause.

Tlie foHowing section (No. I.) gives an idea of the w.'iy in
which tliese rocks occur in connexion with the coal measures,
and ' the kind of soils which they res})ectively form : —

The section commences cm the left
with the tran nnd altered rocks which
J bound the coal-field towards the south,
i as at the head ol Belleisle bay, or
1 on the Hammond river, about twenty
f miles from the town of St. John. On
these rocks scanty soils are found,
and the gloom of the narrow-leaved
>, forest is rarely broken by the intrusion
& . of the more cheerful beech, the oak, or
I c the niaple. But (m the rounded hills
£| of the red c:onglomerate (1), — which in
|§ Albert county remind the luiglish tra-
^> veller of the hills of our own Monmouth-
3 sliir(? — I)road-leaved forests of various
trees cheer the eye, while the free and
^ ojx'n soils which rest on them, tliough
I sometimes too gravelly, yet admit of being
■| (ultivatcd along steep slopes till the
S \\aviug corn crowns the very tops of the
hills. In the beautiful Sussex vale —
justly the boast and pride of the pro-
vince — and in some of its tributary val-
leys, the eye recognises with pleasure
the fi-aturcs, both physical and agricul-
tural, which *re familiar in the red
sandstone slopes of Strathmore, in the
richly-farmed red sandstone fringe of
I Sutherland, and wl>ere a tillage hardly to
I be surpassetl crowns the hills of VVool-
'- ler, and ac( oijij)anies the N()rthund)rian
tourist to the foot of the Cheviot hills.

Over the red c<mglomerate (1) lies the

l)lue limestone (2). On this rock the

1 soil is sometimes thin, and, like our own

blue limestones, the rock breaks out in

some places into abrupt cliffs and naked

slopes. Generally, however, it is covered

^ with soils which are easily l)r()ught into

I S culture, and are especially favourable to

;| the growth of wheat. Of the native

I forest trees of North America, the white

/■'■'l

''■/■;
■■■/

'--'

in North-Eastcrn America.

walnut (Jitf/htna ciiicrca) — or Butternut, as it is called iVoni its
large oily nut — is one of those which appear to delight in calca-
reous soils. It is not known in the woods of Nova Scotia, but it
occasionally abounds on th.; blue limestone ridges of New IJruns-
wick. Tiie Butternut ridf/e, tlu; seat of a tliriving settlement,
about eight miles north of the Sussex vale, derives its name from
having been originally covered with these trees. It consists of the
l)lue limestone lying between the red conglomerate (1) cm the
one hand, and the red marls (3) on the other, and the settlement
owes its existence altogether to these hap])y geological condi-
tions. The explorer of still untrodden regions, from a distance
of many miles, sees the setting sun in summer phiying among
the broad leaves of the butternut, or marks tin ir peculiar
autunmal tints when winter a])proaches, and records at once tliat
good land exists on the spot, and a place desirable for settle-
ment. The geologist may with almost equal certainty pronounce
that there also limestcme rocks abound, and near them in all
probability the red rocks represented in our section.

Above the blue limestone rest thin beds of soft red marl, in
which oc(;ur deposits of gypsum often of great extent and thick-
ness. The softness of these beds has caused them to crumble
readily and to form deep soils, and has also exposed them to be
washed away by the rains and by the currents of water which in
ancient times flowed over them, llenee the surface, where these
rocks prevail, is of an undulating character, or it is scooped out
into valleys of greater or less depth and breadth as is represented
in the section. The soil is strong and rich, and in its natural
state is covered with broad-leaved trees, where it is not over-
saturated with water. When cleared, it yields excellent crops of
wheat, and when laid sufficiently dry by arterial drainage, or by
smaller conduits, it becomes fitted for almost every crop to which
tlie climate is pro])itious. 1 mention arterial drainage, because
the same soft character of these rocks which has led to the
scooping out of valleys, has also caused the production in many
places of flat plains possessing little natural inclination or outfall,
and on which the waters from springs and rains and melting
snows continually rest. Such places are covered by swamps or
stunted forests of youthful j)ines. They can be laid dry and
fitt( d for agricultural labour only by drainage operations, some-
times on a large scale, and such as in the present partial settle-
ment of the colony, and while abundance of dry unoccupied land
still remains in the market, are not likely to be undertaken
either by individual proprietors, or at tlie expense of the pro-
vincial authorities.

To th(; red marls with gypsum succeed the grey conglomerates
and sandstones of the coal measures (4, 5, (), 7), of which I have

Relations of Gcolofjy to Agriculture

already spoken, as giving the general character to the agricultural

capabilities of the central part of the pro-
vince of New Brunswick. And with these
rocks, as is shown in the section, the com-
paratively-poor soils to which they give
rise succeed to the rich and productive
soils of the red marls which lie below
them.

It does not always happen that the whole
scries of the locks above described (1, 2, 3)
is seen together in the same locality. While
passing over the poor soils of the upper
coal measures (7), tlie traveller may all at
once be arrested by the blue limestone (2),
and beyond it may come upon the beautiful
ricli soils of the red marls and gypsnin,
and after crossing these may find himself
again among the Hats and pine forests of
the coal measures (4, 5, 6cc.). Tliis is
shown in the section No. II., in which
the several rocks are numbered as before.
This section represents the l)lue lime-
stcme (2) as rising up and abutting against
tiie upper coal measures (7) ; an affect
produced by one of those disturbances
from beneath, to which, as I have said,
the edges of the coal-field have in many
places been subjected. To this limestone
succeed, towards the right, as in the pre-
vious section, the red marl and gypsum
''o{'ks, with the good soils they invariably
produce, and beyond these come on again
the indifferent soils of the lower coal mea-
sures. Further to the right again I have
represented the red sandstone conglome-
rate (1) as rea])pearing in immediate
contact with the lower coal measures (5),
and producing consequently another sudden
transition from an inferior to a su})erior
n quality of soil. Suth transitions frequently
i recur along the southern and eastern skirts
3 of the coal-field, and they are almost in-
variably to be connected with the direct
and visible presence of th(3se red and linustone roiks. Although,
therefore, the presence of each of the red rocks and of the lime-
stone is not always to be inferred from the discovery of any one

4»l«

in North-Eastern America.

of them, yet two things are almost certain in this province

first, that wherever one of these three rocky formations comes to
(lay, good land and broad-leaved trees will be met with ; and
second, that the best land in the southern h:<lf of the province,
and the best-peopled settlements, are almost invariably situated
upon these rocks ; and at the same time the transitions are so
sudden as to leave no doubt, on any observing mind, that upon
the change in the geological structure alone are the changes in
soil dependent.

The reader who is least familiar with the mode of settling a
new country will readily understand that it is usual, in every
district, to select, occupy, and cultivate the best and richest
land first, provided it be equally accessible. He will understand
It, tlierefore, to be in the natural course of things that many of
the oldest and best settled agricultural districts in New Bruns-
wick are situated upon the rocks which I have described.

But in speaking of fertility in a colony ./hich, in the minds
of many in this country, is associated with the idea of long
winters, deep snows, and cold of intense severity, it may not be
out of place to specify, in intelligible terms, the amount of
productiveness which this fertility implies. By this means also
a practical idea will be conveyed of the value of the province to
the farming emigrant. During my stay in New Brunswick I
collected a valuable body of special information, in which I was
much assisted by the proA incial authorities, in reference to the
actual produce per acre of the cultivated land throughout the
l)rovince. The average of the numerous returns obtained from
practical men gave the following as the yearly produce of land
per imperial acre throughout the whole of New Brunswick :

Wheat
Oats .

Rye .

Barley

18 bushels

Buckwheat
Indian corn
Potatoes .
Turnips .

28 bushels.
36 „
6 tons.

We are not to compare these averages with those of our own
skilfully cultivated, well-manured, and generally high-farmed
country, but with the yield of land in other parts of North
America, if we wish to form a fair estimate of the comparative
position of New Brunswick r.s an agricultural country. Now,
leaving out New England, in which the soils are generally
of a less rich description, we may select New York, Ohio, and
Upper Canada, as among the most highly-esteemed regions of
North America, in an agricultural sense. The following table
exhibits the average produce of land in these several regions
compared with that o*" New Brunswick : —

15 3

10 Relations of Geohfjy to Agriculture

'' New Hriinswick. New York. Ohio. Canada West.

liush. Uugli. Bush. Hush.

Wheat 18 14 16i 13

Barley 27 16 24 17i

Oats 33 26 S4 25

Buckwheat .... 28 14 20 16

Rye 18 9* 16 114

Indian corn . . . 36i 26 41 —

Potatoes 204 90 69 84

Turnips 390 88 — — *

This table places the agricultural capability of New Bruns-
wick in a very favourable light, and shows that, notwithstanding
its severe winters, the soil of this province, if properly farmed,
may favourably compete with the most productive States and
Provinces of North America. And although the actual averages
for the whole of the cultivated land in New Brunswick do not
directly exhibit the amount of produce yielded by the more
favoured portions of the province in which the red sands, marls,
and limestones described in this paper exist, yet they do in
reality prove these districts to be highly productive, inasmuch
as the comparatively high averages for the whole colony arise
from the admixture of the higher numbers representing their yield,
with the lower numbers representing the general yield of the
soils of the widely-extended coal measures.

IV. Infvence of Circumstances in Modifijing the immediate
Relations of the Soils to the rocky Formations of a Country.
— The illustrations I have presented in this and a former paper
leave no room for doubt that in many cases the agricultural
value of the soil over very large areas is directly determined by
the nature of the rocks below, and sometimes by the mere geo-
logical epoch to which these rocks belong. It is so with the
coal measures of New Brunswick, and with the other rocks I
have described.

But I have shown also that the physical geography of this
coal region — its extreme flatness especially — and the impervious
character of its thin-bedded strata, have materially modified, in
many places, the natural quality of the surface in respect to
agricultural value. Bogs, swamps, and carriboo plains, through
these agencies, are made to cover large areas, and thus to give
an economical charac:ter to the surface, whicli is altogether inde-
pendent of the chemical composition which distinguishes the
rocks beneath. As the time appears now to have arrived when
the influence of circumstances in producing snch modifications
in the agricultural indications of general geology ought to obtain
a more prominent place in our systematic works, I take this
opportunity of illustrating tiie general effect of such influences

* See the author's ' Notes on North America,' ii. p. I'JIJ.

in North- Eastern America.

upon the agricultural value of the soils which rest upon the coal-
field of New Brunswick.

During my stay in that province I was enabled, througli the
kind co-operation of the Surveyor-general, the Hon. Mr. Brown,
and other parties, to publish a map, in which, by different
colours, were represented the qualities of the soils over its entire
surface. This map included, in addition to the observations
made and information collected during my own tour, the greater
part of the knowledge which had previously been obtained
during the numerous surveys made under the direction of the
Surveyor-general and by order of the provincial government. It
was, therefore, an exceedingly valuable document, not only in a
directly-economical point of view to the practical men of the
province — but theoretically also, as affording the means of
comparing the actual observed value of the soil in any locality
with the indications of its geological structure. From that map
I have extracted the accompanying triangular portion, which
represents the area of the coal-field, over which, almost every-
where, those grey, generally thin-bedded, sandstones extend,
which are exhibited in the geological sections above given (Nos.
I. and II.), and which naturally produce the poor soils I have
already repeatedly described. On looking at this map, however,
it will be seen tliat various kinds of shading, here substituted
for the colours of ihe original map, are scattered irregularly over
its surface. Thest different shadings indicate to the eye the
kinds of soil which ere actually found in the several parts of this
extensive area. The sl;:»ding —

No. I. indicates land of the first class, which in its natural state
will produce 2^ tons of hay an acre.

No. II. is land of the second quality, wliich produces 2 tons of
hay an acre.

These two are represented by the same shading, as the quan-
tity of each in this part of the pi'ovince is very small.

No. III. is land which produces 1^ tons of hay.

No. IV. produces 1 ton of hay per acre.

No. v., though covered for the most part with narrow-leaved
timber, is considered in its present condition to be incapable
of profitable cultivation ; and the shading

No. VI. indicates the sites of known bogs, swamps, &c., which
in various places rest upon this incapable surface.

Now, at first sight, it might appear as if there were no ac-
cordance whatever between the indications of geology taken
alone, and the actual observed qualities of the soil, as represented

Belations of Gcolof/t/ to Af/riculttirc

in this map. A little examination, however, removes this im-
pression, while, at the same time, it shows how other causes
operate in modif'yinn^ purely p^eological influeneos, what these
causes are, and to what extent they operate. Thus it will be
seen —

1st. That only in a few places of limited extent do soils of
the first or sec(md quality occur; — therefore it is generally true
of the whole area, that the rocks of the coal measures produce
or an; covered by soils of an inferior quality.

2n(l. That the poorest or most worthless porti(ms (Nos. V.
and VI.) lie towards the sources of the rivers — form the higher
table-lands in other words, which the rains of summer and the
snows of winter may wash and impoverish, but which, in a state
of nature, receive nothing by which tlieir natural quality can be
materially improved. The highest parts of these regions rarely
rise more than 200 or 300 feet above the sea-level, they may
therefore be regarded as representing in their soils a quality
something inferior to what the rocks themselves, by their crum-
bling, would naturally produce. Tlie rains have yearly washed
them for an indefinite period of time, and the rivers have carried
off their soluble portions and their finer insoluble particles,
reducing them thus gradually to the condition in which they now
are.

There is, besides, in this country, another cause of im-
poverishment to which, in a state of nature, the surface is
exposed, which is not undeserving of special notice. Forests
prevail everywhere over the unreclaimed territory, and these, in
the scorching days of the North American summers, are subject
to frequent fires. The ash of the burned forests, when it falls
and rests where the trees grew, excites and quickens a new vege-
tation, and hence the easy and luxuriant crops which the settler
obtains when he has strewed upon his young clearing the heaps
of ashes which the felled timber has yielded. But, if the fires
are succeeded by heavy rains, the ashes are swept off from the
sloj)ing grounds, and the blackened naked surface is robbed of
its most fertilising constituents. Hence where frequent forest
burnings have taken j)lace the land becomes notoriously worth-
l(-ss. The wind besides assists the rains, and, on the whole, is
probably a still more rapid and v.'idely-acting exhauster of these
forest lands. Whenever great fires have occurred in the woods
of New Brunswick, and along the shores of the St. Lawrence,
th(!y have almost invariably b(!en acc()ir.])anied by powerful winds.
The great fire which, in 1825, desolated the norchern part of
New Brunswick', along the course of the Mirainichi river, was
j)ushcd on by an irresistible gale of wind, before which it gal-
l()j)ed across the country with a speed which carried it o»'er a

■

in North- Easteni America.

■

distance of thirty milos in a sinjrU; liour. Such hurricanes sweep
smoke and asli and light twigs, and even burning brands, over
hand and sea, to unknown distances, and thus effectually rob the
soil of those quickening materials which the living trees had
|)rol)ably, for half a century, been extracting from it by their roots.
It is easy to see how, in these various ways, the rains and winds
of heaven must have gradually rendered poorer the naturally
poor uplands of this coal measure district ; so that, as I have
said, tlie quality of the soils represented by No. V. must be con-
siderably below that which the soils on the same spots must have
possessed when the rocks, from which they are derived, began
first to crumble through the agency of natural causes.

3r(l. Passing over tlie soils No. IV. which, if what is above
stated be considered probaljle, may be looked uj)on as represent-
ing in some degree the natural quality of the soils of this region,
we may dwell for a little on those richer soils which are indicated
by the shading No. 111. In regard to these it will be observed
that they lie in general along the lines of drainage of the country,
and towards the outfalls of tlie rivers. On the one hand, we find
this quality of soil bordering the course of the VVashedamoak
river, skirting the Grand Lake and its tributaries, and following
the line of the St. John river, as it crosses this rcixion. On th<;
other hand, the Miramichi river and its feeders, fen* a great part
of their descent, flow through soils of this quality ; and so also
towards the sea {^Northumberland Straits, which separate New
Brunswick from Prince Edward's Island) into which many streams,
rising in the Hats and swamps of the higher country, empty
themselves, the same better quality of 3oil prevails. So that
generally, we may say, that towards the outfalls of the rivers in
every direction the better soils are to be found, — a circumstance
very generally observed still in most of the long-inhabited and
long-cultivated countries of Europe. And the explanation of
this circumstance is easy : — the same atmospheric agencies whicli
have robbed the higher land have enriched the lower. 'I'he ever-
flowing and frequently-flooded rivers have brought down and
deposited in the line of their descent, the materials of richer soils,
and have thus gradually — upon rocks of the same geological age
and of the same chemical composition — established diversities
of soil, which a knowledge of the geological structure alone
would not lead us to anticipate, and for whicli, in fact, this know-
ledge does not enable us to account. That here and there such
richer soils occur in places which existing rivers appear unable
to reach, only reminds us how imperfect our information still is
in regard to the actual condition of this new country, and to the
nu5difying causes now in operation in different locsilities; Jind
how still more imperfect is our acquaintance with tlie earlier

Relations of Gcohnjy to Af/ricultnre

history of tlio surfacr of New Brimswirk, with the chan-ros
which tlic river-courses have undcr«r<)ne, with the cause of the
great tleepeninjj; whicli their channels liave sufTered, and with the
numerous otlier pliysical alterations by which the influence of the
streams upon the country through which they pass must have been
very much modified.

It is the character of running streams, when they lose thein-
selvesin seas or lakes, or other large bodies of comparatively still
water, to let go and deposit near their mouths the solid matters
they were able, while in motion, to keep in suspension and bear
along with them. Now along the shores of Northumberland
Strait there are many indications of a later lifting up of the pro-
vince, by which i fringe in some plai es of twenty or thirty miles
in breadth, previously under water, was laid dry. While under
water, the numerous .ivers which cross this cofkst-line would
meet the sea at an earlier part of their course, and all tlie mud
they brought down would be distributed along the sea-bottom,
and deposited by tides and currents, probably at (onsiderable
distances from their actual mouths, so as to form wide patches
of more capable soil, as the shading (No. III.) ahmg this coast-
line actually rei)resents. The numerous terraces, rising one
above another, along the banks of the St John river, are unmis-
takable evidence of the anciently higher levels at which its
waters ran. When this was the case, the surfaces numbered
I , II., and III., may have been subject to overflow, while the
waters of the Grand Lake and of the Washedamoak river may,
in like manner, have covered a large portion of the belter land
by which they are now fringed round or accompanied. Thus,
by the aid of ancient changes of level, we may be enabled to
explain, in other cases as well as in the present, how existing
causes mav have given rise to an:)mal()us appearances, which
the operation of these causes, in present jjhysical conditions, are
insufficient thoroughly to explain,

4th. The soils Nos. I. and II., though very limited in extent,
point out another agency, in addition to those already noticed, by
which the agricultural indications of geological structure may
be, and no doubt are, in many cases, materially modified. In the
map before us, there are two spots upon which these soils occupy
a considerable area. 'J'he first is on the river St. John, below
Fredericton; the second at the liead of Cumberland Basin, (me
of the upper branches of the Bay of Fundy. The existence of
soils so rich in the first of these localities is explained by the
circumstance that, before entering the carboniferous region, the
river St. John, or its tributaries, had passed through geological
formations of red marls, red sandstones, and Silurian slates,
which naturallv form verv fertile soils, and thence had brought

in NortU-Eustcni America.

with tlicin materials of productiveness which were foreign to this
reffion, Thece were naturally deposited where the river first
widened into a shallo^v lake, and jjave birth to the fertiie
alluvium of which the first and second class soils on the St. John
river in a great measure consist. In the second locality, on the
head waters of the Bay of T'undy, the lofty tides of Ihat Bay,
thick with red mud — the spoils of the soft rocks which they
wear down in their daily ebb and How — have, like the waters of
the St. John, brouglit upwards tlie materials of other formations,
and have overlaid with most fertile soil the more barren surfai-e
natural to the rocks on which they rest. It is a natural war])ing
with foreign materials — similar to that performed by our own
Humber and Trent on the adjoining moor-lands, or by the river
Ombrone upon the Tuscan Maremma — that tlie existence of these
first-class soils in this portion of New Brunswick, are for the
most jiart to be ascribed.

It is unnecessary, 1 tliink, to follow this subject at present
into further detail ; I shall therefore briefly &'um up the results
to which tiie study of this case has led us in regard to the re-
lations of Geology with Agriculture, and to the causes by which
these relations, naturally close, may be materially modified.
These results are —

1st. That the actual agricultural value of the soil in a dis-
trict may differ very much from that which pure geology,
alone would indicate. This is shown by the maj) before us, in
which, although the soils special io tie formation do predomi-
nate, yet soils of all f|ualities are seen extending often over very
large areas. . . . ■ , . > . '

2nd. That the ptiysical structure of a country Jias niu.ch. in-
fluence in causing the production of such diversities of soil upon^
or from, the debris of rocks of the same age and kind.

3rd. That the existence of flat table-lanjs; for example, ox of
depressions having no natural outlet, will cover extensive portions
of such a surface with swamps and bogs, in' cliraates. which
favour the accumulation of vegetable matter. Thu^, u« in Ireland
not less extensively than in New Bruns\v4ck, the econo.mico-
agricuHural influence of geological structure may be disguised
or wholly hidden by the purely su])erficial covering of decaying,
vegetable matter.

4tli. That, generally speaking, the soil of a district of uniform
geological character will improve in the direction of the natural
drainage and river outfalls. Wliere rains fall or snows melt, it is
the tendency of the flowing water to enrich tlie lower at the ex-
}>ense of the higher country, and thus to establish differences
of soil which did not originally exist. At the same time the
final result of such action will depend very much upon the nature

Relations of Geolof/i/ to Agriculture

of tlio rocks tlinnsclvos. If tlicy consist of limestone, the r.-ins
may wash down tlio finer particles from many i)laees ; hut
wherever soil nunains it will still retain nearly the same com-
position as at first, and will be little impaired in fertility by the
action of the rains. Henc(! the fine sweet herhajro whu h clothes
our limest(>ne-hills, and makes them so j;rateful to the pasturing;
Hocks. Or if hills or table-lands of red marl* form the hi<;her
country, portions may be washed down without materially affect-
ing the quality of what r(Mnains. Let a fresh portion <)! the n)ck
crum])le, and thinirs are a-ain as they were before. A new soi
is produced, equally fertile with that which has been washed
away, and thus the fertility natural to the rock will be perma-
nently maintained.

It is different, however, in the case of sandstone ro-ks, such as
those of the coal-fields of New Brunswick. When such rocks
crumble they form soils more or less sandy, according to the pro-
portion of fine clay which has been originally ccmtained in the
materials from which the rock was formed. Now, the action ol
hi., y rains upon such a soil is not to carry it away bodily, as in
the case of the limestone or of the fine red marl, but to wash out
the fine clayey particles, and carry them down to lower levels.
Thus on the uplands the sandy soils become every day more
sandy and of less value, while, in the direction of the drainage,
they become, on the other hand, constantly more tenacious and

productive. • i i •

Thus the amount of infiuence exercised by physical thainage
is itself limited, and determined by the chemical composition oi
the rocks of which the country consists.

5th. That the passage of rivers or of sea-arms across a poor
fountry, after it has previously traversed a richer geological
region, is sure, to a greater or less extent, to modify— to increase,
in fact, the value of the surface in the line of its course. 1 Iuk
is seen, as I have pointed out, on the St. John river, and at the
head of the Bay of Fundy, and is confirmed by observations
made by myself and others in nearly all parts oi the world.

Gth. That partial elevations of the Innd at successive periods
will aid otlier physical causes in establishing such differences,
often, as in New Brunswick, covering with more fertile land the
surface which has been most recently raised from beneath the
waters of seas or lakes. It is conceivable, however, that in other
conditions the very converse may take place.

These practical results are drawn directly from the map before us.
Of course they do not indicate or exhaust all the causes by whicii
modifications are introduced into the agricultural indications ot

* Sucli us is rt'prese' 'i» <-»ui sections l)y (a).

in North- Eastern America.

pure gcolofjy. A siir.llnr annlysis of other oxnmplcs will in('ir<iU'
other cause's oi" similar chanj^c ; and 1 think these causes ouia^hl
now, in reference to the specialities of each country, to be made
the subject of critical study and examination. The problem in
each case to be solved is this. Given a certain fj^eolofj;ical struc-
ture, which indicates fjenerally, and {Generally produces, certain
agricultural capabilities; to what extent and in what localities
have these indications been interfered with and modified by
other a<>encies? In what way and to what extent have climate,
physical structure, recent chanjjes of physical structure, the
neifjhbourhood of unlike p^eological formations, the action of
those induences which produce what geologists call changed or
metamorphic rocks, or other natural causes, been instrumental
in producing such modifications? This, like all other more ad-
vanced inquiries, is more complicated and difficult than the
simple proldcm of the direct relation between the character and
age of a rot k, and the quality of the soil it produces when broken
up. B t it will result in furnishing us with Sj^ecial surface
maps, waich will be of direct and immediate use to the practical
agriculture of every country. And, what will be not less in-
teresting, theoretically, it will at once connect these soil-maps
with our strictly-geological ernes, through the intermediate agency
of physical causes, similar to those which have operated in a
greater or less degree at all geological epochs.