MIXTURE OF SOILS. 



MIXTURE OF SOILS. 



These instances are remarkable, and well 

 worthy of the careful consideration of the 

 farmer; for the poverty of both the sand and 

 the gravel, which is thus so successfully min- 

 gled together, is very great. The appearance 

 of the soil here gave no indications of any 

 good being derived from the union of the two. 

 The black gravel and the red sand were equal- 

 ly sterile; yet their mere mixture yielded a 

 productive soil. 



The permanent advantages of mixing soils, 

 too, is not confined to merely those entirely of 

 an earthy composition; earths which contain 

 inert organic matter, such as peat or moss 

 earth, are highly valuable additions to some 

 soils. Thus, peat earth was successfully added 

 to the sandy soils of Merionethshire by Sir 

 Robert Vaughan. The Cheshire farmers add 

 a mixture of moss and calcareous earth to their 

 "tight-bound earth," the effect of which they 

 describe as having "a loosening operation;" 

 that is, it renders the soil of their strong clays 

 less tenacious, and consequently promotes the 

 ready access of the moisture and gases of the 

 atmosphere to the roots of the farmers' crops : 

 their vigour is promoted, their food better sup- 

 plied. There are certain natural indications 

 with regard to the admixture of soils which 

 are self-evident to every cultivator; and there 

 are others which are well understood in par- 

 ticular districts. The Norfolk farmers consider 

 that marl is not far from the surface when the 

 weed coltsfoot (Tussilago forfara) abounds : and 

 that all lands will be much benefited by marl- 

 ing which produce the weeds corn-marigold, 

 or briddle (Chrysanthemum segetum), and smart- 

 weed, or pale-flowered persicaria (Polygonum 

 Pcnnsylvanicum). 



In the transfer of the earths the farmer will 

 find it a profitable practice, especially when the 

 distance is great, to have them previously dug 

 in pits, and dried in the sun. In this way the 

 weight of either chalk, marl, or clay is much 

 more considerably reduced than the cultivator 

 would suppose. I have found that when moist 

 chalk is dried in this way it loses from 20 to 

 24 per cent, of water. Strong adhesive clay, 

 under similar circumstances, loses from 32 to 

 41 per cent., and marl from 18 to 26 per cent, 

 of its weight; so that, supposing he carts 100 

 cubic yards of each of these fertilizers, by 

 merely having them previously dried, he saves 

 in weight of carriage 



In the chalk - 

 In the cl'iy - 

 In the marl - 



Tow. 



- 20 to 24 



- 39 to 42 



- 18 to 26 



As there are only these earths present to any 

 extent in all cultivated soils, and as the propor- 

 t: n which they bear to each other makes the 

 cnief difference between fertile and barren 

 lands, I shall confine my attention in this paper 

 to the application of 1. Chalk, 2. Clay, 3. Sand, 

 to land which is naturally deficient in them; 

 and in entering upon the investigation, I shall 

 suppose that the farmer is aware that it is 

 merely the excess of one of these earths which 

 renders a soil unproductive, and that the ap- 

 plication of the deficient earths operates so 

 advantageously by tending to render the com- 

 position more similar to those of richer soils, 

 104 



in which the earths are mixed in a more fertile 

 proportion. It is of the first importance, how- 

 ever, that the farmer should be aware of this 

 fact ; let him, to this end, contrast the analysis 

 of a barren soil like that of Bagshot Heath, 

 which is composed of 



Paris. 



Coarse silicious sand ... sgo 

 Fine sand ------ 9 



Iron, clay, and chalk ... u 



loo 



with that of the soil of a Lincolnshire pasture, 

 which contains, in the same weight, 



Part*. 



Fine calcareous sand and silicious sand - 160 



Soluble matters ..... 6 



Organic matters ----- 40 



Chalk 32 



Oxide of iron ------ 8 



Alumina (pure clay) ----- 25 



Silex (earth of flint) - .... 65 



Water, and loss 64 



The soil of Bagshot, he will observe, contains 

 nearly twice as much silicious matters, and 

 only one-fifth the proportion of chalk and alu- 

 mina, that is present in the pasture from Croft 

 in Lincolnshire. 



Chalk and marl are both used for the sake 

 of the corbonate of lime they contain, and they 

 may, therefore, be treated of under one head. 

 The proportion in which I have witnessed these 

 applied per acre naturally varied with the ex- 

 pense of the carriage of the material. On the 

 light gravelly soils of the coast of Essex, I have 

 used, in common with my neighbours, about 

 20 to 25 tons of the chalk of Kent per acre, at 

 a cost of about 6s. per ton; but of marl the 

 quantity applied in the same district is from 

 50 to 100 tons per acre, which may be com- 

 monly procured for the expense of carriage 

 and spreading; and this addition to the soil is 

 a very permanent improvement. Chalking, 

 the Essex farmers say, lasts for 20 years, and 

 marling for a man's life. 



Upon analyzing a productive soil, worth 30*. 

 per acre, which had been thus chalked about 

 five years previously, it was found to contain 



Stones and snivel, principally silicioua - - 

 Vegetable fibres ...... 



Soluble matters, principally vegetable extract 

 Carbonates of liine and magnesia - - - 

 Oxide of iron ------- 



Animal and vegetable matters ... 

 Alumina ------- 



Silica ....... 



Loss . 



27 

 15 



285 



3 

 18 



4 



1 



4'5 

 40 



100 



A portion of the same field (which was an, 

 enclosure from a poor common), not chalked, 

 being examined, was found to yield nearly the 

 same proportion of ingredients, but the chalk 

 was almost entirely absent. Now, before the 

 addition of the chalk, the land was too poor to 

 yield any thing except the fern and the furze. 



In Dorsetshire, near Weymouth, and on the 

 Coomb Hills, which separate Berks from Hamp- 

 shire, where chalk is in many places readily 

 obtained by sinking a well, and drawing it up 



825 



