372 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



completely expunged all vegetable promise, and left a residuum 

 of thin soil, and, in some cases, the whitest sand. It is pre- 

 sumed that this county alone contains, as a general estimate 

 twenty thousand acres of this soil, and if we have resources 

 within our reach for reclaiming it, it is matter of the truest 

 policy to discover and apply them. Now what says science ? 

 Why if this land is too porous and friable for want of clay, then 

 supply what is wanting. Nature has fortunately so disposed 

 the different kinds of earth, that no part of our territory is very 

 remote from a deposite of the best clay. This costs nothing 

 but the labor of removal, and though in most cases it will not 

 act as a manure, yet it will render the effect of all manure more 

 lasting, and render the soil more moist and more fit for future 

 cultivation. 



I have tried some experiments of this kind, putting on about 

 eighty cords to the acre, or, say three inches in depth. The 

 expense of this, if the work had all been hired, might have been 

 $40 or $50 to the acre. If done at odd spells, and by the 

 farmer himself, it would be less. Some may prefer a lighter 

 dressing ; but in farming, as well as elsewhere, work once well 

 done is twice done, and even at the highest named price, I 

 think you would better do it than attempt to reclaim by manure 

 a soil, every foot of which is little better than a sieve. The 

 effects of this course of treatment are exceedingly durable. 

 Fields within my knowledge that were so treated a long time 

 ago, have exhibiied the beneficial effects after the lapse of 

 twenty-five years. It should be remarked that much care is 

 necessary that the clay is thoroughly mixed with the soil, or 

 much of it will prove little better than blocks of stone. Expo- 

 sure to the frost before ploughing in, is one of the most efficient 

 means of accomplishing this. Water expands in freezing ; 

 hence moist earth expands under the influence of frost and be- 

 comes disintegrated. The use of the harrow, after the clay 

 has frozen and dried, will be exceedingly efficient. I call your 

 attention therefore to this matter, and ask an experiment in a 

 small way to test the propriety of the thing. 



There are other methods of gaining the same end, though I 

 think none so effectual. If we can fill the soil with decayed 



