Soil

Representative Samples

Soils of the North and South. Soil Samples in Jars.

Left: the rich loam of the alluvial deposits of the central Green Mountains. This is a representative sample of Northern soil—brown in color.

On the right: a sample of soil from a Central Tennessee roadbed (Cannon County, 1998). This soil contains a substantial amount of iron oxide, a geological mix characteristic of the American South. This a rich, terra-cotta red soil pigmentation is prevalent in a wide swath from Virginia to Oklahoma and from Florida to Texas.

The major chemical components of soil are: sand (chemically silicon dioxide {SiO2} or quartz); clay (often used by chemists to denote hydrated silicate of alumina (Al2O3•2SiO2•2H2O); chalk (CaCo3); and humus, decaying vegetable and animal matter (peat is probably the least nasty smelling of this category).

These two types of distinct soil colors are caused by oxidization, one of the major categories of study in which the Museum is immersed. The bonding of oxygen to other molecules is not only one of the most characteristic functions of all living organisms, but it is the chief means of the decay and even of the entropy of the same.

To those who have traveled widely in the United States they are as representative of the two regions of the country as the Blue and Grey of Civil War uniforms.

Sod and Loam

fl;1998;1757;in.
not yet constructed, 2002. 

Sod Specimen, leaves, grass tiny, little pieces of sticks and other vegetation. Special illumination. Four sided glass vitrine.

Not long after the settlement of Hartland, an Indian used to pass annually through Fieldsville inquiring for a man by the name of Smith, and it was learned that “Capt.” Samuel Smith, who was born in 1757 and who served as one of Washington’s bodyguards, had, as an unthinking youth, come upon an Indian papoose while out reconnoitering with other Minute Men near Bellows Falls. Carrying the babe up the river, they set it down near Waterquechee where it was found by the pursuing parents. The Indians learned that Smith was the culprit, and from that day sought to wreak their vengeance upon him. He made a home on “Smith Hill” in the “Weed District,” raising a family there, and so far as known, was never molested.

Nancy Darling, “History and Anniversary of the Town of Hartland, Vermont,” The Vermonter, “The State Magazine 1763—1913, Published Monthly by Chas. R. Cummings, White River Junction, Vt., November, 1913, p. 217-34 and December, 1913, pp. 241–258.