10 GENERAL REMARKS. 



the young plants may get devoured by insects as fast as 

 they corne up. To obviate these difficulties, I have generally 

 allowed a week or ten days for the sowing of seed, 

 intending the medium as the proper time for the vicinity of 

 New-York. With this clearly borne in mind, the reader 

 who observes the difference in the degrees of heat and cold 

 in the different parts f the country, will know how to apply 

 these instructions accordingly. 



Much depends on the manures used on particular kinds of 

 soil. The great art of improving sandy and clayey soils, is 

 to give the former such dressings of clay, cow dung, and 

 other kinds of manure, as will have a tendency to bind and 

 make them more compact, and consequently more retentive 

 of moisture ; and to the latter, coats of horse dung, ashes, 

 sand, and such other composts as may tend to separate the 

 particles and open the pores of the clay, so as to cause it to 

 approach as nearly as possible to a loam. 



The nearer the ground approaches to a sandy soil, the less 

 retentive will it be of moisture ; the more to a clayey, the 

 longer will it retain it ; and the finer the particles of which 

 the clay is composed, the more tenacious will it be of water, 

 and consequently be longer in drying, and the harder when 

 dry ; but earth of a consistence that will hold water the long- 

 est, without becoming hard when dry, is of all others, the 

 best adapted for raising the generality of plants in the 

 greatest perfection. This last described soil is called loam, 

 and is a medium earth, between the extremes of clay and 

 sand. 



I have, in most cases, recommended drills to be made at 

 certain depths for the different kinds of seed ; and when I 

 have stated that the drills should be two inches deep, it is 

 intended that the seed should be covered only one inch, 

 which it will be when planted in these drills, and covered, 

 and so in proportion for any other depth required. This 

 may serve as a guide to the young gardener, but circum- 

 stances alter cases ; if, for instance, some particular crops 

 should fail, this would render it necessary, if the season be 

 far advanced, to risk a further planting of seed, even if the 



