CLAY, SAND, ETC. 93 



these gases with Httle waste. It is thus capable of being 

 enriched to almost any extent, and can be made a store- 

 house of wealth. 



Where it can be procured, there is no better fertilizer for 

 clay land than the product of the horse- stable, which, as a 

 rule, can be plowed under in its raw, unfermented state, its 

 heat and action in decay producing the best results. Of 

 course, judgment and moderation must be employed. The 

 roots of a young, growing plant cannot feed in a mass of 

 fermenting manure, no matter what the soil may be. The 

 point I wish to make is that cold, heavy land is greatly 

 benefited by having these heating, gas-producing processes 

 take place beneath its surface. After they are over, the tall, 

 rank foliage and enormous fruit of the Jucunda strawberry 

 (a variety that can scarcely grow at all in sand) will show 

 the capabilities of clay. 



Heavy land is the favorite home of the grasses, and is 

 usually covered with a thick, tenacious sod. This, of course, 

 must be thoroughly subdued before strawberries are planted, 

 or else you will have a hay-field in spite of all you can do. 

 The decay of this mass of roots, however, furnishes just the 

 food required, and a crop of buckwheat greatly hastens 

 decomposition, and adds its own bulk and fertility when 

 plowed under. I think it will scarcely ever pay to plant 

 strawberries directly on the sod of heavy land. 



While buckwheat is a good green crop to plow under, if 

 the cultivator can wait for the more slowly maturing red-top 

 clover, he will find it far better, both to enrich and to 

 lighten up his heavy soil; for it is justly regarded as the 

 best means of imparting the mellowness and friability in 

 which the roots of strawberries as well as all other plants 

 luxuriate. 



There are, no doubt, soils fit for bricks and piping only, 



