156 One Thousand Questions in Agriculture 



packer afterward to reduce the land so that it will not be too open 

 to loss of moisture by too free circulation of air. The best way 

 to treat such a soil would be to use a tractor and plow to a full 

 foot of depth, for this, followed by good harrowing, would disin- 

 tegrate the hard stuff and commingle it with the loose surface soil 

 and make it somewhat more retentive — doing this when the moist- 

 ure is just right for disintegration and mixing. If you are not ready 

 to go to this expense, a subsoiler, following the plow with another 

 team, would put your land in better shape for dry farming or for 

 irrigation than it is now. Starting late, however, might give you 

 less crop the first year on such deep working than by shallow plow- 

 ing if the year's rainfall should be scant. It would, however, be a 

 good start for summer-fallowing and a big crop the next year. 



Sour Soil. 



What is "sour" soil? Is that the name by which it is commonly 

 known, and what is the treatment for it? 



Sour soil is soil in which an acid is developed by plant decay 

 and exclusion of air. The proper treatment is the application of 

 lime, and aeration by open tillage and underdrainage. 



Old Plaster for Sour Land. 



Can house plaster be used in reclaiming sour ground and how much 

 per acre? The ground produces some sour grass — not a great deal. The 

 plaster is from an old building that is being torn down. 



House plaster is desirable as an application to land which is 

 sour. It also adds to the mellowness of land which is hard, because 

 of the sand contained in it. It has always been considered a good 

 dressing for garden land. So far as the correction of sourness goes, 

 it is much less active than fresh lime, but it acts in the same way 

 to a limited extent. It is certainly worth using, providing it does 

 not cost too much for delivery, and can be freely used if the land 

 is heavy and needs friability. 



Application of Manure Ashes. 



Having recently got a lot of manure plentifully supplied with red- 

 wood shavings that had been used with the bedding, and being afraid 

 to use the same in that shape, as it takes such a long time for the wood 

 to rot, I reduced the pile to a heap of ashes. Hoiv can it be best applied 

 to ornamental trees and shrubbery in a light gravelly soil? 



You have done unwisely in burning the manure. We would 

 have taken the risk of a single use of shavings for the sake of the 

 manurial matter associated with them, and this risk of too much 

 lightening of a gravelly soil would be especially small in connection 

 with deep rooting plants like ornamental trees and shrubbery. You 

 have left merely the skeleton of the manure, and much of that of 

 doubtful solubility, if the temperature ran very high by burning in 



