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Experiment No. 3. — The greater part of our farming lands do 

 not present the ideal conditions as regards texture. Clay soils are 

 especially liable to be in bad condition. If samples of the various 

 soils can be collcted, as sand, loam, clay, etc., it may be clearly 

 shown how different soils respond to the same kind of treatment. 

 With a common garden trowel, the soils should be stirred and 

 worked while wet and then put away to dry. After drying, the 

 conditions presented by the soils should be noted, also the length of 

 time required for the soils to become dry. Whereas the sand and 

 the loam will remain in fairly good condition when dry, the clay 

 will have become " puddled," i. ^., the particles will have run 

 together and made a hard, compact mass. Thus it is found in 

 practice that clay soils must be handled with far more care and 

 intelligence than is required for the sand and loams, if the texture 

 is to be kept perfect. 



Experiment No. i. — If, in the experiment above suggested, the 

 clay soil is mixed with leaf-mold or humus soil from the woods, it 

 will be found to act very differently. The vegetable matter thus 

 mixed with the mineral matter prevents the running together of the 

 particles of clay. 



Two principles, both important as relating to soil texture, now 

 have been illustrated. Soils must not be worked when they are so 

 wet that their particles will cohere ; the organic matter or humus 

 must be kept mixed with the mineral matter of the soil. In 

 practical farm operations, if the soil can be made into a mud ball it 

 is said to be too wet to work. The required amount of humus is 

 retained in the soil by occasionally plowing under some green crop, 

 as clover, oi* by applying barn manures. 



Clay soils are also frequently treated with lime to cause them to 

 remain in good condition and be more easily tilled. Lime causes 

 the line particles to flocculate or to become granular, i. e., several 

 particles unite to form a larger particle and these combinations are 

 more stable and do not so readily puddle or run together. A mud- 

 puddle in clay soil will remain murk}^ until the water has evaporated 

 entirely. Let a little water-slaked lime be mixed with the muddy 

 water and the particles of clay will be flocculated and will settle to 

 the bottom and the water becomes clear. 



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