72 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



Mr. Hitchcock of Sharon : Some men speak as though they would sell 

 sand}^ land for |50 and pay 180 for clay, and there they would miss it. The 

 trouble is they don't understand the nature of sandy soil. A productive 

 soil contains all the elements of plant growth, and if the farmer by growing 

 successive crops of wheat or otherwise, takes from these elements au undue 

 proportion of some of them so as to destroy the equilibrium he destroys the 

 fertility of his soil. 



As to plaster, fifty pounds per acre is enough, because it is all that a sea- 

 son's rainfall can dissolve. As to leaching of sandy soils it is trifling and the 

 chief advantage of top dressing is due to its value as a mulch added to its 

 value as a manure. 



Prof. Johnson : All clay soils contain a percentage of sand and all sandy 

 soils contain a percentage of clay, and the lightest sands have the least clay 

 in them. A loamy soil has about 60 to 70 per cent of clay and 30 to 40 per 

 cent of sand. We increase the fertility of sands by making them more reten- 

 tive. We can winter more stock on light soils than we can summer. Thor- 

 ough culture of light soil makes it more retentive of moisture and fertili- 

 zers. Soil analysis can do little in testing the value of soils for agriculture, 

 as there is such a great variety in the conditions of fertility. Let each study 

 his own soil and its possibilities. 



Pres. Willits: Do I understand the gentleman that the value of a sand 

 depends upon its proportion of clay and that clay would be the best 

 manure for sand? 



Prof. Johnson : Clay would be a valuable dressing for a sandy soil if it 

 could be well mixed with it. 



Mr. Stark: Prof. J., I understand, says that fertility depends on the pro- 

 portion of clay in a soil. Now suppose a man with a sandy farm has a clay 

 bank, should he haul the clay bank on to his farm ? 



Prof. Johnson: That depends on the quality of each. 



Mr. Piatt: Mr. Ball said that clover on sand is shorter, more nutritious 

 and better than the long growth on clay soils. If he will sow twice the 

 seed on his clay he will get three times the crop he could on sand and of as 

 good quality. I have two acres of sand on my farm and have to put three 

 times the manure on that spot and get less crops in everything, unless it be 

 of corn. Wheat looks well on that piece but doesn't thresh out well. I am 

 in favor of clay or clay loam. * 



Mr. Van Hooten, of Sharon : I have always been a farmer. In testing 

 we say the proof of the pudding is chewing the string. So the test in 

 farming is experience. In Ontario county. New York State, I bought twen- 

 ty-seven acres. It had six acres of plastering sand (no quick sand) and some 

 brick clay and some blue clay. I seeded the whole and it came up well on 

 the sand and not so we)l on the clay. I found that in the sand the roots 

 went down eighteen inches and made a crop while in clay there was not 

 enough vegetable mould to grow the clover and it died. How to bring the 

 clay to grow the crop that the sand did, either of wheat or clover was the 

 question. I tried mixing the soils. There was a muck bed near and I 

 mixed muck with sand and put them on the clay and jiut clay and muck on 

 the sand and plowed and cultivated and got bigger crops on the sandy ground 

 than on the clay. The clover roots on the sand penetrated deeper than on 

 the clay and tliat was the reason of its excellence. 



Some one said if he had a sandy farm he would sell it for $50 and buy 

 clay for $80. I differ with him. Before he can make his clay farm produce 



