392 Chronicles of a Clay Farm, [September, 



FROM TALPA 

 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



CHAPTER I.— THE WASTE. 



Much as may be learnt, by a willing mind, from tbe wisdom of others 

 the most practical and (shame upon us !) the most attractive lessons 

 seem always to be derived from their failures. It is too late, in the 

 natural history of the " biped without feathers that laughs," to stop 

 and inquire into this little item from the list of his peculiarities ; so 

 I shall take it for granted in the most practical and amiable way in 

 which it can be at once assumed and applied ; and like the self- 

 devoted bird that plucks its own breast to feed the young brood, open 

 up my early farming blunders to the instructive gaze of those young 

 and ardent agriculturists who are just beginning to recognize the 

 last of human Sciences in the first of human Arts, and to " only 

 wish, like duteous sons, their parents were more wise." 



I shall not tell when it was, nor where it was, nor why it was, that 

 I first " broke ground:" the first would be too cruel, the second too 

 particular, and the third too personal. But I shall describe my farm 

 geologically and myself categorically, which must answer every 

 proper inquiry of the curious, and will leave a little untold besides, 

 which serves the better to keep alive the interest of the narrative. 



Somewhere or other in England there is a flat, bleak, high-lying 

 district, which a shallow or very terse geologist might haply describe 

 as part of the New Red-sandstone formation ; but where, if he would 

 take the trouble to plow an acre, he would hear now and then a sus- 

 picious kind of sound from the share and colter, which I may describe 

 by the word " soapy ;" and where, whenever the nose of the plow 

 chanced to dive an inch deeper than usual, he would see certain blue- 

 looking indications turned up, that would rather startle his compla- 

 cency, if a lover of light soils, by a suggestion of the proximity of 

 that terrible antagonist — the blue lias.^^^ Should this discovery 



* "Lias" is the geological temi for various strata of marl, shale aud other deposits 

 below the surface. These strata often coutain conglomerate, or mixture of shells, lime, 

 alumina, silex and iron. The Blue Lias, as in the text, contains iron and liuic, possess- 

 ing the property of " setting" underwater. Scarcely any deposit beneath the surface, 

 within range of the plow, can be more unwelcome to the farmer as affecting the perma- 

 nent fertility and improvement of his soil. It is a favorable consideration that deposits 

 of lias are not frequent in American soils. 



