AN ILLUSTRATION. 271 



and some varieties of fruit, as the pear and plum, grow best on 

 a soil where there is a large proportion of clay ; grass and pota- 

 toes on a vegetable or peaty soil, and also on all of the soils 

 which have been named, where there is a sufficient quantity of 

 water present to supply the wants of the plant. Of course, to 

 produce healthy plants, which must in the end result in good 

 crops, all these varieties of soil must contain or be supplied with 

 an abundance of proper and nutritious food, suitable for the 

 perfection of the particular crop expected to be grown, and in a 

 condition immediately available for its use ; for plants, like ani- 

 mals, attain to greater perfection when they are grown without 

 receiving any check. 



As an illustration : How is it with the breedpr of stock ? If 

 he is an intelligent person, he will, after providing suitable ani- 

 mals to breed from, combining all the requisites he desires to 

 perpetuate in the progeny, carry out still further the necessity 

 of the case, and not stop there, but will see to it that they are 

 well fed, cleaned, sheltered, and receive such other care, that 

 the animals may be thrifty and good specimens of their races. 



There is the same good reason for feeding a crop ; for after 

 providing a suitable soil, it will not do to stop there, and not 

 furnish the proper amount of food for a full product, for a small 

 or medium crop may not pay expenses, and will require nearly 

 the same amount of labor for cultivation, and the same outlay 

 for land as would be necessary for a large crop which would pay 

 a good profit over all expenses. 



It is within the power of most farmers to amend the soils on 

 their farms to some extent, and thereby adapt them to a greater 

 range of crops, as by dressing sandy soils with clay, which, by that 

 means alone, will make them become permanently better and 

 more productive, and will give to the soil greater power of 

 retaining moisture and manure for the food of plants, while an 

 amendment by the application of muck or peat will give value 

 for a time, but would be exhausted by cropping in the same 

 way as manure, only at a slower rate. On clay soils the appli- 

 cation should be directly the reverse, — that is by dressing with 

 sand, for the purpose of giving the soil less tenacity, and mak- 

 ing it more loose, porous and friable, and also by the application 

 of coarse manures, which not only supply food for the growing- 

 plants, but mechanically loosen such soils. 



