FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 51 



Saintioin may also be grown to considerable advantage, 

 on hard gravels. See GRASSES. But on fine schUtic 

 gravelly soils, and those approaching more to the character 

 of that of which we shall next speak, crops of potatoes, 

 Indian corn, and even tolerable growths of wheat, may be 

 had, in rotation, beside clover, with the aid of gypsum and 

 other suitable manures. 



9. A gravelly loam, There are various degrees of fer- 

 tility to be found in this soil, according to the quality of 

 the loam, and the kind and quantity of gravel contained in 

 it: But, generally speaking, it is a soil properly calculated, 

 with the aid of gypsum, and other suitable manures, tor a 

 rotation, say, first of potatoe^ then Indian corn, followed by 

 wheat in the Fall, alter the crop of corn has been cut up; 

 or, barley in the Spring, and then clover. Some of the 

 mellower and richer sorts of this soil may also answer well 

 tor turnips, carrots, and other roots, and generally for almost 

 all kinds of crops suitable for dry upland soils. 



10. Clayey soils. Real stiff clays form but a small pro- 

 portion of the arable lands of this Country j though there is 

 a considerable portion of them that have more or less alu- 

 mine in their composition. The more obdurate soils of 

 this description, when long manured with lime, an4 oiher 

 ingredients, lose that adhesion which renders them so un- 

 pleasant in cultivation, and they then become more assimi- 

 lated to loamy soils. 



Clays, in their original state, are unfriendly to the growth 

 of root-crops, and some of them are too retentive of water 

 for crops of 'wheat; but, if they are sufficiently dry, they 

 are well adapted for this grain, and tolerably well for oats, 

 barley, red-clover, timothy, and some other grasses; though, 

 for all the natural meadow-grasses, the weter clays are best. 

 Stiff clays, being but little assisted by gypsum, do not pos.- 

 sess the advantages common to most other soils in this 

 Country, which are powerfully aided by this stimulant. 



The extent ot any rotation of crops, on clayey lands, 

 must depend much on the proportion of clay they may 

 contain. If clayey soils be sufficiently dry, with a propor- 

 tion of calcareous or silicious earth mixed with them, they 

 may be then well suited for rotations of such culmiferous 

 and leguminous crops as may be found most advantageous ; 

 and also, for some of the root- crops, particularly potatoes. 

 The rotation in such case may be similar to that lor dry 

 loams, substituting the potatoe-crop for that of turnips. 



If the soil be merely a stiff dry clay, the first crop may 

 be oats, well harrowed in on the sward properly turned 

 over: Such, at least, is a common and successful .practice 

 in Greatbritain. As soon as the crop is harvested, turn the 

 stubble under; and in the Fall throw up the ground into 



