Note 26 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 5)

The learned Dr. Wallerius, in his Mineralogy, §. 8. in the note to the article, Humus communis atra, mentions that some people were of opinion, that the mould of our globe increased their parts, especially in such places as had been uncultivated ever since the deluge, and that thus in a hundred years, half an inch of mould was produced. But he observes in the same time, that this observation was not at all exact; for as the common mould seldom exceeds a soot, it must from thence follow, that since the deluge no more than 2400 years were elapsed, though the scripture chronology reckons upwards of 4000 years since that event: besides this, he remarks, that mould always becomes more dry and compressed, where it is out of the reach, of rain and snow; and where it is exposed to rain, it is carried off to lower places, and therefore increases and decreases according to the qualities of its local situation. Moreover, vegetables it is known prosper the best where mould is found. As the surface of our globe has been covered with vegetables since the deluge, they must have had a mould to grow in ever since that time; consequently it is highly probable, that there must have been a mould covering the surface of our globe, ever since the first origin. I should be led by some other confederations, to doubt of the infallibility of this rule for the increase of mould. In Russia, on this side the river Volga, are high and extensive plains, which have been uncultivated ever since the deluge, for we know from history, that the Scythians, Sarmatians, Huns, Chazars, and Mogols, were successively the masters of these vast countries, and were altogether nomadic nations, who lived without agriculture; the country has been without wood since time immemorial, nor could there even spring up any wood whatsoever, since its rambling possessors every spring set fire to the old dry grass, in order to make room for the new grass, which in the latter end of May, I found come up very near to my waist. And these vast, desart plains, I saw every where covered with at lead two feet mould; nay, in some places it amounted to four feet; this would give according to the former rule of half an inch per Century, 4800 years, in the first instance, and in the second, 9600 years, and therefore shews that this rule for calculating the increase of mould, is very precarious. The chemical analysis of plants, shews that they consist of water, earth, acid, alkali, oil, and an inflammable principle, independent of the last substance, and called by a late German chemist the caustic: these substances must enter yearly the new plants, and make their substance, and are as it were regenerated in these new plants, after being set at liberty from the structure of the last year’s plants by putrefaction, or by fire. Mould chemically examined, has the same analogous parts. Acid and caustic are plentifully contained in the common air, and may also easily be restored to the mould, and thus circulate through a new system of plants. Water comes likewise from rain and snow, out of our atmosphere: alkaline and oily particles, or a kind of soap, are the only things wanting, which when added with the former to any subtle earth, will make a good mould, and these are produced by putrefaction or fire, from vegetable and animal substances, and are the great promoters of vegetation.

But the great question is, from whence these various substances necessary for vegetation originally came? To believe they are produced from putrified vegetables is begging the question, and making a circulus vitiosus in the argument. There is therefore no evasion; they were certainly produced by the great Creator of the universe, and endowed with such qualities, as make them capable of producing in various mixtures new bodies; and when they are introduced by moisture, into the first stamina of a plant, or a seed, they expand these stamina, and constitute a new being, capable of affording food to the animal creation. It is evident, Mr. Kalm hinted at the above-mentioned opinion of the increase of mould, and this gave me an opportunity of confirming his argument, and of stating fairly the great question oh which agriculture, the most necessary branch of human arts depends. F. ↑