CLAV, SAND, ETC. 97 



munerative ; the reverse is decidedly so, and top-dressings 

 of clay on light land are often more beneficial than equal 

 amounts of manure. 



As practically employed, I regard quick, stimulating ma- 

 nures, like guano, very injurious to light soils. I believe 

 them to be the curse of the South. They are used " to 

 make a crop," as it is termed ; and they do make it for a 

 few years, but to the utter impoverishment of the land. 

 The soil becomes as exhausted as a man would be should 

 he seek to labor under the support of stimulants only. In 

 both instances, an abundance of food is needed. A quinine 

 pill is not a dinner, and a dusting of guano or phosphate can- 

 not enrich the land. 



And yet, by the aid of these stimulating commercial ferti- 

 lizers, the poorest and thinnest soil can be made to produce 

 fine strawberries, if sufficient moisture can be maintained. 

 Just as a physician can rally an exhausted man to a condi- 

 tion in which he can take and be strengthened by food, so 

 land, too poor and light to sprout a pea, can be stimulated 

 into producing a meagre green crop of some kind, which, 

 plowed under, will enable the land to produce a second and 

 heavier burden. This, in turn, placed in the soil, will begin 

 to give a suggestion of fertility. Thus, poor or exhausted 

 soils can be made, by several years of skilful management, 

 to convalesce slowly into strength. 



Whether such patient outlay of time and labor will pay 

 on a continent abounding in land naturally productive, is a 

 very dubious question. 



Coarse, gravelly soils are usually even worse. If we must 

 grow our strawberries on them, give the same general treat- 

 ment that I have just suggested. 



On some peat soils the strawberry thrives abundantly ; 

 on others it bums and dwindles. Under such conditions I 



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