400 



SOI 



SOI 



against the attacks of frosts and 

 winds. If a snow happen to fall 

 after spring grain is sown, it does 

 not injure it at all, but rather as 

 sists its vegetating. 



In the northern parts of New- 

 England, the ground in some years 

 is covered with snow for four 

 months, even in the cultivated 

 fields. This is not regretted by 

 the iohabitants, as they find it is a 

 great advantage for drawing masts, 

 logs, lumber, and wood, upon sleds, 

 which is much easier than carting 

 them. The roads are also far bet- 

 ter, when the ruts and sloughs are 

 filled, and every part paved with 

 ice, or condensed snow. The win- 

 ters, tedious as they are, seem too 

 short for the teamsters to finish 

 their winter business. 



Meat that is killed in December, 

 may be kept tolerably, if buried 

 in snow, until spring. This is an 

 excellent method of preserving 

 fresh and good the carcasses of 

 turkies and other fowls. 



Set an open cask in a cold place ; 

 put snow and pieces of meat al- 

 ternately : Let not the pieces 

 touch each other, nor the sides of 

 the cask. The meat will neither 

 freeze, grow dry, nor be discolour- 

 ed ; but be good at the last of March. 

 The surfaces of the pieces should 

 be a little frozen, before they are 

 put into the snow, that the juice of 

 the meat may not dissolve the snow. 

 The cask should be placed in the 

 coldest part of the house ; or in an 

 out-house. 



SOIL, that part of the earth 

 which lies upon the hard under 

 stratum, over which there is com- 

 monlv a cover of rich moujd, which 



forms the surface, unless destroyed 

 t>y severe burning, or washed off 

 by violent rains, or blown away by 

 driving winds. 



The original or unmixed soils, in 

 this country, are but few. Clay, 

 loam, sand, gravel, and till, or moor 

 earth, are perhaps all that ought 

 to be reckoned as fit for cultiva- 

 tion. But they are commonly 

 more or less blended together. 

 In places where they are unmixed, 

 it would be a piece of excellent 

 husbandry to mix them, especially 

 where they are contiguous, apply- 

 ing gravel to moor earth, and moor 

 earth to gravel ; sand to clay, and 

 clay to sand. And sand upon loam 

 would be an improvement, 



A chalky soil is but seldom found 

 in this country. Marie is usually 

 at too great a depth to come under 

 the denomination of soil, and the 

 same may be said of peat. This 

 last cannot easily be reduced to 

 a condition fit for tillage. It is best 

 to destroy it, by digging it wholly 

 out for use, or by draining the 

 land, and burning the ptat on the 

 ground. A chalky soil should have 

 sand and hot manures applied to it. 



I do not consider a stony soil as 

 distinct from the rest, as removing 

 the stones would bring it under 

 some other denomination And 

 this ought to be done, when land 

 is to be used in tillage, that its ope- 

 rations may be facilitated. 



Soils are commonly distinguish- 

 ed into shallow and deep, the lat« 

 ter of which is preferred, as the 

 under-stratum comes not so near 

 to the surface, but that the ground 

 may be stirred to a great depth ; 

 and as it is fitted for the growing 



