THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



539 



sour crout sowens, and sour food for cattle; and 

 the reason of this will readily be understood when 

 it is observed that almost every root in the soil 

 undergoes the process of souring by itself; and that 

 as the land becomes sour, it produces a multiplicity of 

 sour plants, so that the question of acidity must of ne- 

 cessity become a very diversified one, differing in dif- 

 ferent geological soils, and under different climatic and 

 other circumstances, that always demand consideration. 

 The discussion of the souring principle, with its pre- 

 disposing cause, being the object of this paper, a few 

 examples by way of illustration will be perhaps the best 

 mode of procedure. 



1. Sour undrained clay land under aration is the 

 first example we shall quote, one which came under the 

 experience of the writer about 25 years ago. It was 

 under a four-course shift, and open or naked fallow ; 

 and until very heavy doses of lime were applied, it was 

 experienced impossible to prevent it from becoming so 

 sour as to be unfit for profitable culture. 



2. A field similar to the above was laid down to per- 

 manent pasture, undrained. All the good grasses soon 

 disappeared, coarse sour herbage taking their place. 

 Large doses of top-dressing, with fresh seeds, produced 

 a temporary effect ; but the coarse grasses remained per- 

 manent, vvhile the others did not, and the land was ac- 

 tually worth less than when lying in its original state, 

 prior to cultivation, or about the commencement of the 

 present century, when it was first broken up. 



3. A large extent of a nobleman's deer-park is a sour 

 gault clay, producing a thick matted sward, principally 

 of sour bent-grass. It had been drained about 3 feet in 

 depth and 18 feet apart; had been top-dressed oftener 

 than once since it was drained ; but although it was 

 drier, the quality of the pasture was very little im- 

 proved, as the land was still sour, and the few good 

 grasses it contained unhealthy. 



4. Permanent meadow and pasture from time imme- 

 morial, soil a clayey loam, drained as above ; had been 

 very sour prior to drainage, and was recovering, but 

 slowly ; much effete vegetable matter in the soil ; roots of 

 the fine grasses in an unhealthy state, those of the bent 

 grasses healthy ; had received top-dressing of guano 

 and other artificial manures, but not with a profitable 

 result. 



5. Permanent pasture, part of a nobleman's park, 

 thickly studded with large trees, principally oak ; soil a 

 gravelly clay loam, very wet, and extremely sour; was 

 drained in 1843, and trenched two spit deep, the coarse 

 grassy spit being thrown to the bottom of the trench, 

 and the cold wet sour subsoil thrown on the top. The 

 moment the vegetable matter was exposed to the influ- 

 ences of the atmosphere it began to rot, and sourness, 

 as a matter of course, to disappear. With bone-dust 

 the land yielded a fine crop of swedes, and after receiv- 

 ing a heavy dose of lime, was laid down to permanent 

 pasture, and produced a thick luxuriant sward of fine 

 grass the first year. 



6. A sandy soil under aration, undrained, with a subsoil 

 always in a pool of stagnant water, which in winter 



ometimes rose to the surface at high tides, to which it 



was subject, the land having been reclaimed from the 

 sea at the estuary ol a large river. It was extremely 

 sour, and the produce accordingly of the coarsest 

 quality. 



7. A sandy loam under aration, at some distance fiom a 

 large river, with its subsoil under water level, so that 

 at every high flood the whole field was a lake. 

 Generally, however, the water stood from one to two 

 feet below the surface. Subsoil sour ; produce un- 

 healthy, coarse, and scanty, and disliked by cattle. 

 When grazing they would shun the grass that grew upon 

 it, whenever they had the privilege of another field. 



8. A deep, black vegetable soil, in permanent meadow 

 and pasture, on the banks of a navigable river, where 

 the water was dammed back by locks, mill-dams, and 

 the other out-of-date obstructions of this kind to arte- 

 rial drainage. The subsoil, which is full of vegetable 

 matter, is continually drowned in stagnant water, and, 

 consequently, is sour. The produce is greatly deterio- 

 rated below what it otherwise, with proper drainage and 

 aeration, would be ; while the hay and pasture are liable 

 to produce zymotic disease in the stock that consume 

 them. A very large area of the meadow land of England 

 belongs to this example, and also of Ireland. 



9. A large area of country, before it was reclaimed 

 by drainage, presented a very diversified surface, with 

 an equally diversified quality of produce. Geologically 

 and geographically, it was similar to the first example, 

 being in the same county, and at a short distance only 

 from it ; but from being subject to stagnant water all 

 the year round, and from part of the soil being clay, 

 part a gravelly and sandy soil, part peaty loam, part 

 livebog, part a rich alluvial soil, lying on sandstone, 

 pouring forth at every crevice clear bubbling springs, it 

 was otherwise different in a thousand respects — so much 

 so, that anything like a detailed account of the various 

 qualities of sour land exemplified is absolutely impossi- 

 ble. Horses, oxen, and sheep had the privilege of 

 grazing promiscuously over the whole, and we shall only 

 notice two characteristics in reference thereto, viz. : 

 Where there was a plentiful supply of fresh spring water 

 in the subsoil, and where this rose and flowed off in 

 small meandering rivulets in Nature's own plan of sur- 

 face draining, the herbage was fine and much relished 

 by all kinds of stock. But where the water stagnated, 

 keeping the land always wet, it was extremely sour ; the 

 herbage coarse, but in some places very plentiful, and 

 so disliked by cattle that they would starve before they 

 would eat it. Consequently, large quantities were an- 

 nually cut, and carted to the homestead for litter. 



The above nine examples, it will be seen, comprise 

 two classes ; from one to five inclusive belonging to 

 one class, and the remaining four (six to nine) to 

 another class. In the former the soil is not always wet ; 

 on the contrary, during dry summers, it suffers ex- 

 tremely from drought, being cut into fissures, and lying 

 like broken brick-bats. In the latter, the roots of plants 

 are always in stagnant sour water. It is absolutely ne- 

 cessary to pay the closest possible attention to these 

 differences ; for, unless this is done, we lose sight of the 

 chemical changes that take place in the cultivation and 



