KINDS OF SOILS. 53 



dry soil, and for this reason favorable to nearly all our 

 useful plants. Water-cress seems to enjoy plenty of 

 water, and a sandy soil is therefore unsuited to it. 

 Our common garden and field plants object to wet 

 feet, and prefer more or less sand in the soil where 

 they live. We saw that water will rise through sand 

 by capillary attraction : this is useful in any soil, be- 

 cause in dry weather, if the subsoil is damp, water will 

 rise through the sand to feed the roots of the plants 

 growing in the soil. 



However, there are also objections. Sand, we saw, 

 is loose, and easily moved about by water. A sandy 

 soil is therefore easily washed away by rains, and, if 

 too sandy, may suffer great injury by washing in heavy 

 storms. Water, we observed, flows quickly through 

 sand ; and, if any soil contains too much sand, every 

 rain that falls upon it washes down the light organic 

 parts of the soil, that are needed to supply the plants 

 with food, into the subsoil out of the reach of the 

 plants. This washing away, or leaching-out as it is 

 called, may be so injurious that the plants can find 

 nothing on which to feed, and so perish. A very 

 sandy soil may be so light that it is also injured by 

 being blown about by the wind. 



We observed that sand, whether wet or dry, is easily 

 moved in the hand. This is important in another 

 respect. All soils where plants are growing must be 

 frequently stirred, to let the air come to the soil, and 

 to destroy the weeds. A sandy soil is easy to hoe or 

 plough, because the sand is loose. This saves labor, 



