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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE GEORGIA. 



[370] 



It is supposed to have been deposited at the close of the 

 Glacial Period. 



Alluvial soils result from the deposits of material trans- 

 ported by running waters, which hold them in suspension 

 until their course is sufficiently interrupted to cause the de- 

 posit of the suspended material, as sediment. Successive 

 deposits, continued through a long period, form stratified 

 alluvial soils. 



Colluvial soils are mixtures of drift and alluvial, contain- 

 ing both rounded and fractured rocks. 



Agriculturally > soils are classified as sandy, clayey, calca- 

 reous or marly i according to their composition. Soils con- 

 taining a large per cent, of vegetable matter, or humus, 

 are called vegetable moulds. 



Those in which sand predominates, but is united with a 

 considerable amount of clay, are termed sandy loams ; where 

 the proportions of sand and clay are reversed, they are 

 termed clay loams. 



It is important that the farmer should understand, not 

 only the physical character, but the chemical constituents 

 of the soil he cultivates. 



There are very few soils of such physical and chemical 

 character as to be permanently independent of the use of 

 artificial means, either to perpetuate their fertility, or to re- 

 store the waste from successive cropping. 



The physical condition of soils may be affected by a va- 

 riety of artificial means, at the command of the landlord. 



Soils composed of coarse sand allow a too rapid descent 

 of water through them ; are incapable of supplying moist- 

 ure from below, by capillary attraction, and are deficient in 

 the power of absorbing moisture or fertilizing gases from 

 the atmosphere. Neither are they retentive of fertilizers 

 applied to them. Where a clay subsoil underlies them, in 

 reach of the plow, their mechanical defects may be some- 

 what remedied by bringing up the clay, during winter, to 







