212 GRASSES AND FORACxE PLANTS. 



beneficial effects, both on pasture and mowing lands. And 

 besides, the application of them is so simple, so much within 

 the reach of every farmer, that it is well worth the trial. If 

 the soils are mucli worn, or very barren from a great preponder- 

 ance of any particular earth, a liberal allowance will be re- 

 quired. Ordinarily, as in the experiments which have come 

 under my notice, some twenty-five or thirty cart loads to the 

 acre have been found sufficient to increase very greatly the 

 productiveness of the land. A still less quantity would be of 

 essential service. Nor is . the expense of this ap])lication so 

 great as some imagine, for almost every farm contains a quan- 

 tity of waste peat meadow, and clay is frequently near at hand. 

 It may be removed and prepared at a season of the year wlien 

 there is but little else to do. The expense, therefore, need not 

 deter any one from its use. 



But tlierc is another substance equally accessible, wliich acts 

 both as an ameliorator and a fertilizer of the soil. It is, per- 

 haps, one of the cheapest and most profitable top-dressings. It 

 is the rich loam which accumulates in the holes by the road 

 side, and wherever the wash gathers from hills. Every one 

 has observed the effect of the loam thrown out upon the grass 

 in ploughing. The grass along the edges soon becomes greener 

 in spring, and grows with greater luxuriance. The wash by the 

 road side would have a far more powerful eflfect. For this con- 

 tains, besides the putrescent animal matters, from the road, a 

 quantity of sand, which rich soils wanting closeness and con- 

 sistency, require on the surface. Spread upon such soils when 

 covered with grass, it is very efficacious, and often makes the 

 vegetation as vigorous as stimulating manure. Experiments 

 have clearly shown that the eifect of sand on some soils is to 

 operate as a manure. 



Among the mineral manures, lime lias sometimes been used 

 as a top-dressing. Its effect arises not so much from any direct 

 nutriment furnished by it to the grass, but from its influence 

 on the substances in the soil. It hastens the decomposition of 

 vegetable and mineral matters in the earth. In this way it 

 renews exhausted soils. It increases the temperature of cold, 

 sour lands after being drained. It causes a rapid decay of peat 

 sul>:-taiices. Hence its use in the compost heap. It destroys 

 til ; mossos and coarse herbage which work in among the grasses, 



