LAND ENRICHED BY CLOVER. 87 



And if this can be done with the barren sandy knolls, 

 how much more with the plains ! 



294. Where neither clay nor marsh mud is to be 

 easily obtained, light, sandy land may sometimes be ren 

 dered capable of absorbing and retaining the atmospheric 

 elements of vegetable food and thus becoming fertile, by 

 scattering plaster upon it and sowing clover seed. When 

 the crop of clover, together with the weeds which will 

 spring up with it, is in perfection, that is, nearly or quite 

 ripe, it may be ploughed in. This process, though seem 

 ingly a waste of good clover hay, is one by which many 

 poor lands may be rendered fertile and afterwards kept 

 so by careful cultivation. 



295. If it be objected that all these amendments re 

 quire a good deal of time and labor, it may be answered, 

 that there are days in the year when a farmer can spare 

 both . and that a permanent improvement of land is worth 

 a good deal of both. There are no gains without pains. 

 Clay may be brought from a clay pit or muck from a bog 

 at seasons of the year when no agricultural operation can 

 go on. 



296. A Clayey Soil is to be improved first by the appli- 

 ^ cation of sand, as fine as can be found, in quantities 



proportioned to the hardness and closeness of the clay. 

 The object is to bring it into such a state as shall allow 

 water to penetrate freely, and that it shall harden and 

 crack less under the influence of drought. If applied to 

 the surface, the sand will exert at once a favorable influ 

 ence there, and will soon find its way down into the clay, 

 when another layer may be applied. This may be done 

 as well in the heart of winter as at any other season. 

 The sand not only improves the texture of the soil, but 

 the reciprocal action of the clay and the sand, aided as it 



