388 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



ciety, it was stated, that the application of clay to the light 

 sandy soils of Westfield in this State, had been remarkably suc- 

 cessful. They put it on at the rate of about eighty cords to 

 the acre, and considered that it paid them well. This addition 

 of clay is not alone useful as bringing new and valuable ingre- 

 dients to the soil ; perhaps its principal value consists in the 

 power which it gives the soil to retain moisture, and the ma- 

 nures which are applied to it. Thus it is the means of lasting 

 improvement. 



This quality of permanency in improvements, I hold to be a 

 most important one in all cases. The farmer in this country is 

 not a mere tenant, who holds his farm for a few years or for a 

 single year : but he holds it for life, and in the expectation 

 that his children will possess it after him. Is it the wiser pol- 

 icy to take a few rapidly diminishing crops, obtained with 

 small expenditure now, and let the future take care of itself ? 

 Or to spend a little more at the commencement, and then to 

 steadily pursue the course necessary for lasting improvement ; 

 constantly obtaining larger crops, and finally leaving the land 

 doubled or tripled in value ? This has been done, and may be 

 done again ; is it not the better course ? 



The great feature in the modern system of improving light 

 soils, is the use of green crops for ploughing under. 



That I may not be misapprehended by farmers in this dis- 

 trict, it is necessary here to say, that when speaking of the 

 green crop system, I mean both the crops that are ploughed in 

 while green during summer, and those that are left until the 

 ensuing spring and then ploughed in dry. It is in both cases 

 an improvement by the use of green crops, there is only a dif- 

 ference as to the time of ploughing in. 



Vegetable matter serves many of the purposes of clay in re- 

 taining moisture, and preventing the escape of fertilizing sub- 

 stances. Thus many soils which contain little clay, are yet 

 very fertile because a large portion of them is vegetable in its 

 origin ; such are some of our rich garden moulds, or drained 

 swamps. 



Green cropping fortunately enables us to supply the deficien- 

 cy of vegetable matter, much more easily and cheaply than 



