AMERICAN GARDENER, 13 



ought to reject clay and gravel, not only as a 

 top-soil, but as a bottom soil, however great 

 their distance from the surface. See paragraph 

 109. 



17. Oak-trees love clay, and the finest and 

 heaviest wheat grows in land with a bottom of 

 clay ; but if there be clay within even six feet of 

 the surface, there will be a coldness in the land, 

 which will, in spite of all you can do,, keep your 

 spring crops a week or ten days behind those 

 upon land which has not a bottom of clay. Gravel 

 is warm, and, it would be very desirable, if you 

 could exchange it for some other early in June; 

 but, since you cannot do this, you must submit 

 to be burnt up in summer, if you have the be- 

 nefit of a gravelly bottom in the spring. 



18. If the land, where you like to have a 

 garden, hasroc., great or small, they, of course, 

 are to be carried off; but, if you have a stony 

 soil, that is to say, little short of gravel to the 

 very surface, and, if you can get no other spot, 

 you must e'en hammer your tools to pieces 

 amongst the stones ; for it has been amply proved 

 by experience, that, to carry away stones of the 

 fyint or gravel kind impoverishes the land* 

 However, we are not to frame out plans upon 

 the supposition of meeting with obstacles of this 

 extraordinary nature. We are not to suppose, 

 that, in a country where men have had to choose* 

 and have still to choose, they will have built, and 

 yet will build, their houses on spots peculiarly 

 steril. We must suppose the contrary, and, 

 upon that supposition we ought to proceed. 



19. Having fixed upon the spot for the garden, 

 the next thing is to prepare the ground. This 



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