SOILS. 40 



A gravelly soil is one made up in greater part of small 

 stones, pebbles, decomposed rock, <fec. ; such soils, as a 

 general thing, are unfit for fruit trees, unless great labor 

 is incurred in trenching, deepening, and mixing with 

 clay, muck, &c., of opposite characters. 



A loamy soil is one we hear a great deal about, and may 

 I>e understood in various ways. It may be considered a 

 mixture of equal parts of sandy, clayey, and vegetable soil. 

 It is neither so light as the sandy, on the one hand, nor 

 so tenacious as clay on the other ; and, as a general thing, 

 contains such elements, and is of such a texture, as to ren- 

 der it eligible for all ordinary jDurposes of cultivation, 

 and esj^ecially so for fruit trees. Loamy soils are spoken 

 of as sandy loams^ when sand forms a large ingredient, 

 say one half of their composition ; gravelly^ when pretty 

 largely mixed with small stones ; calcareous^ when lime 

 is found in them. 



Calcareous or chalky soils have a large amount of lime 

 mixed with the other ingredients of which they are com- 

 posed. All the lands in limestone districts are of this 

 character, and, as a general thing, are well adapted to 

 fruit culture. 



Peaty soil consists chiefly of vegetable mould from de- 

 cayed marsh plants, in low, wet places. It is unfit, in 

 itself, for fruit trees, but is valuable for improving both 

 light and heavy soils. 



Alluvial soils are composed of decomposed vegeta- 

 ble substances, the sediment of rivers, and materials 

 washed down from neighboring hills ; the valleys of all 

 our rivers and streams are composed of this, and it is the 

 richest of all soils. Fruit trees in such soils make a rank, 

 vigorous gTOwth, but they are not so hardy nor so fruit- 

 ful, nor is the fruit so high flavored as on soils with more 

 sand, clay, or gravel, and less vegetable mould. 

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