SOILS. 13 



RidginfT lip of land, as above hinted at, has the 

 ha])piest effect, especially for stiff soils, and should 

 never be omitted when the ground is not under crop. 

 In dead sandy loams also, and in cankering gravels, 

 it is of incalculable advantage, and greatly meliorates 

 them. For it is a fact proved by experience, that, 

 exposing soil to the sun's rays in part, by throwing 

 it into a heap, whereby it is also partly shaded, and 

 trenching it once a-month, or in tvvo months, will 

 sooner restore it to fertility than any other process, 

 exclusively of adding fresh matter. 



And thus, if any ingredient, noxious to vegeta- 

 tion, abound in the soil., it may be ex})clled, or be 

 exhaled by the action of the atmosphere ; more 

 particularly if tlie soil undergo a summer, and also 

 a winter fallow. In the latter case, however, care 

 should be taken to have the surface incrustcd by 

 frost, as often as possible, by turning it, and giving 

 it a new surface each succeeding tliaw. 



That kitchen vegetables do best on w^hat is term- 

 ed neXL' land^ is a generally received opinion, and is 

 plainly demonstrated in many instances. It is also 

 a common complaint among gardeners, that their 

 groinid, by being, as it is termed, K.^orn out, will not 

 produce certain kinds of vegetables : not that it is 

 poor and hungry, or altogether unfitted to the 

 production of them, having perhaps formerly pro- 

 duced the very articles in great abundance ; but 

 that the surface has been mapy years under these 

 crops, and tliat they have not a sufficient quantity 

 of ground for a proper change. In Xi'dlcd gardens 

 this complaint is most general ; and it would apr 



