116 CALCAREOUS MANURES— PRACTICE. 



This very general opinion is far from being correct ; and as the error is 

 important, it may be useful to offer some evidence in support of the great 

 vaUie to which sandy soils may arrive. 



We are so accustomed to find sandy soils poor, that it is ditficult for us 

 to connect with them the idea of fertility, and still less of durability. Yet 

 British agriculturists, who were acquainted with clays and clay loams of 

 as great value, and as well managed under tillage, as any in the world, 

 speak in still higher terms of certain soils which are even more sandy than 

 most of ours. For example— " Rich sandy soils, however," says Sir John 

 Sinclair, " such as those of Frodsham in Cheshire, are invaluable. They 

 are cultivated at a moderate expense; and at all times have a dry sound- 

 ness, accompanied by moisture, which secures excellent crops, even in the 

 driest summers."* Robert Brown (one of the very few who have deserved 

 the character of being both able writers and successful practical cultiva- 

 tors) says— "Perhaps a true sandy loam, incumbent on a sound sub-soil, 

 is the most valuable of all soils."! Arthur Young, when describing the 

 soils of France, in his agricultural survey of that country, in several places 

 speaks in the highest terms of different bodies of light or sandy soils, of 

 which the following example, of the extensive district which he calls the 

 plain of the Garonne, will be enough to quote : " It is entered about Crei- 

 sensac, and improves all the way to Montauban and Toulouse, where it is 



one of the finest bodies of fertile soil that can any where be seen." 



" Through all this plain, wherever the soil is found excellent, it consists us- 

 ually of a deep mellow friable sandy loam, with moisture sufficient for any 

 thing ; much of it is calcareous."| The soil of Belgium, so celebrated for 

 its high improvement and remarkable productiveness, is mostly sandy. 

 The author last quoted, in another work describes a body of land in the 

 county of Norfolk, as " one of the finest tracts that is any where to be 



seen" " a fine, deep, mellow, putrid sandy loam, adhesive enough to 



fear no drought, and friable enough to strain off superfluous moisture, so 

 that all seasons suit it ; from texture free to work, and from chemical quali- 

 ties sure to produce in luxuriance whatever the industry of man commits 

 to its friendly bosom. "^ Mr. Coke, the great Norfolk farmer, made on the 

 average 24 bushels of wheat to the acre, on an estate of as sandy soil as 

 our Southampton, (where probably a general average of two bushels could 

 not be obtained, if general wheat culture were attempted) — and many other 

 farms in Norfolk yielded much better wheat than Mr. Coke's in 1804, when 

 Young's survey was made. Several farms averaged 36 bushels, and one 

 of 40 is stated; and the general average of the county was 24 bushels. || 

 Yet the county of Norfolk was formerly pronounced by Charles II. to be 

 only fit " to "cut up into strips, to make roads of for the balance of the 

 kingdom"— and that sportive description expressed strongly the sandy na- 

 ture of the soil, as well as its then state of poverty. 



Because certain qualities of poor clay soils (particularly their absorbent 

 power) make them better than poor sands for producing wheat, we most 

 strangely attach a value to the stiffness and intractability of the former. 

 Yet if all the absorbent quality and productive power of clay could be 

 given to sand, surely the latter would be the more valuable in proportion 

 to its being friable and easy to cultivate. The causes of all the valuable 

 qualities and productive power of the rich sands that have been referred 

 to, are only calcareous and putrescent manures, and depth of soil ; and if 



* Code of Agriculture, p. 12. 



t Brown's Treatise on Agriculture, p. 218, of "Agriculture" in Edin. Ency. 



X Young's Tour in France. 



§ Young's Survey of Norfolk, p. 4. 



II Young's Survey ol Norfolk, p. 300 to .304. 



