Ill] THE LOAMS 39 



supply tends to be erratic because of the great ease 

 with which rain water soaks into the depths of the 

 soils, but it can be made more regular by additions 

 of organic manures or of clay. The defects of a sandy 

 soil are mainly negative, i.e. they can be remedied 

 by adding something, whilst its advantages are very 

 real; it induces good root development, early yield 

 and high quality. There is, perhaps, a wider range 

 of possibilities for a sandy soil than for any other ; 

 it may be a desolate heath, or it may, under proper 

 management, blossom out as a fruit and vegetable 

 garden, giving each year two or three crops of good 

 produce. But the cost of the process may be more 

 than the result is worth. 



Soils that contain more of the fine clay material 

 and proportionally less sand are called loams. It is 

 impossible to define loams exactly: the cultivator 

 recognises them by the fact that they are definitely 

 coherent and not loose like sand, yet not over-sticky ; 

 and further that they allow free root development. 

 But there are no sharp lines of demarcation ; many 

 soils at one end of the scale would be called light 

 loams by some practical men and sands by others, 

 while at the other end soils called heavy loams by 

 some would be regarded as clays by others. In 

 between these limits there remains a great body of 

 soils which most cultivators would agree to call 

 loams, and these on analysis are found to contain 



