22 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



soils j &quot; by the addition of clay to sandy soils, and of sand to 

 clayey soils. In agricultural books and addresses, I have often 

 seen this method recommended, with a great air of sagacity and 

 confidence, as an obvious process of improvement, of very easy 

 accomplishment, by persons who understand little of practical 

 agriculture, and very imperfectly appreciate the difficulties of 

 such a process. The transportation of soil is among the most 

 expensive operations in husbandry, and can scarcely be expected 

 to be carried on, on a very extensive scale. To convert a clayey 

 soil into a siliceous soil, or, on the other hand, a siliceous soil 

 into a clayey soil, so as deeply and permanently to change their 

 character on any extensive surface, must be left to those great 

 geological changes which are alike beyond human prescience, 

 command, or control. Amendment, rather than change, is all 

 that human skill and ability are likely to effect ; and I shall 

 detail in this matter such examples as have come under my ob 

 servation. 



The application of sand to clay, like the application of sand 

 to lime in the making of plasterers mortar, has, in general, es 

 pecially if the clay is wet when the sand is so applied, a tend 

 ency to give it hardness, rather than to render it friable and 

 open. Where the land is in a state of dryness, and newly 

 ploughed, the application of a limited quantity of sand might 

 serve to render it more open. That this would be the whole 

 effect to be expected from it, and this to a degree uncertain, and 

 that it would effect no chemical alteration in the soil, seems gen 

 erally agreed. That a portion of silica is essential in the forma 

 tion of all the cereal plants is established ; but in all clays there 

 is presumed to be a sufficiency for this purpose. In peat lands 

 it may be otherwise. A distinguished practical and scientific 

 farmer, the late Mr. Rham, states that he has never known an 

 instance in which the application of sand to clayey soils has 

 been found to succeed in rendering them more porous. The 

 expense of laying on the large quantity of sand that would be 

 required must probably swallow up any profit that could be 

 derived from it. Mr. Pusey, however, showed me an example 

 in which a clay land field in grass had been decidedly benefited 

 by a top-dressing of sand from a neighboring hill. Whether the 

 sand, in this case, had any peculiar chemical properties, from 

 which the benefit of the application was derived, did not appear. 



