CH. 2.] THE KITCHEN GARDENER. 



quick or powdered ftate, and properly 

 working the foil } being careful, in the 

 . firft place, to drain it of fuperabundant 

 moifture. 



Ridging-up of land, as above hinted, has 

 the happieft effed, efpecially for ftiff foils, 

 and fliould never be omitted when the 

 ground is not under crop. In dead fandy 

 loams, alfo, and in cankering gravels, it is 

 of infinite advantage for meliorating them: 

 but in very light fandy foils, it is not ad- 

 vifable to carry this pradice to too great 

 an excefs. For it is a fad: proved by expe- 

 rience, that, by expofing foil to the fun's 

 rays in part, by throwing it into a heap, 

 whereby it is alfo partly fliaded, and trench- 

 ing it once a month, will fooner reftore 

 it to fertility than any other procefs, ex- 

 cfuiively of adding frefli matter. 



^And thus, if any ingredient, noxious 

 to vegetation, abound in the foil, it may 

 be expelled, or exhaled, by the adion of 

 the atmofphere ; more particularly if the 

 foil undergo a Summer, and alfo a Winter 

 fallow. In the latter cafe, however, care 

 fhould be taken to have the furface incruft- 

 ed by froft as often as poffible, by turning 

 it, and giving it a new furface each fuc- 

 ceeding thaw. 



