MIXTURE OF SOILS. 



MIXTURE OF SOILS. 



by a windlass to the surface, the quantity ap- 

 plied per acre is much more considerable. I 

 have seen from 50 to 100, or even 150 tons per 

 acre, spread on the gravel and clay lands with 

 lecided success. 



The cultivator sometimes deludes himself 

 with the conclusion that applying sand, or marl, 

 or clay, to a poor soil, merely serves to freshen 

 it for a time, and that the effects of such appli- 

 cations are only apparent for a limited period. 

 Some comparative experiments, however, 

 which were made 16 years since on some poor, 

 hungry, inert heath-land in Norfolk, have up to 

 thi* time .served to demonstrate the error of such 

 a conclusion. In these experiments the ground 

 was marled with 20 cubic yards only per acre, 

 and the same of compost ; it was then planted 

 with a proper mixture of forest trees, and by 

 the side of it a portion of the heath, in a state 

 of nature, was also planted with the same mix- 

 ture of deciduous and fir trees. Sixteen years 

 have annually served to demonstrate, by the 

 luxuriance of the marled wood, the permanent 

 effect produced by this mixture of soils. The 

 growth of the trees has been there rapid and 

 permanent; but on the adjoining soil, the trees 

 have been stunted in their growth, miserable 

 in appearance, and profitless to their owner. 

 Time has made no alteration ; while the marled 

 soil has yielded an annual and luxuriant crop, 

 the land left in its original state has demon- 

 strated by its produce that something was 

 wanting, some earthy ingredient only needed 

 to render it no longer barren, and the adjoining 

 marled land has further shown of what that ad- 

 dition was composed. 



The expense per acre of this marling, and 

 otherwise preparing the soil, was 



s. 



20 cubic yards of marl, at Is. 3d. - 1 5 



20 cubic yards of compost, at 5s. 5 



Deep ploughing - - - - 1 10 



Trees, carriage, planting - 7 10 



15 10 



In this instance the marl had to be carried 

 about a quarter of a mile. 



It is difficult to account for the want of that 

 general attention to the use of earthy admixtures 

 which so many successful experiments with 

 them would lead us to anticipate. Mr. Rod- 

 well, of Livermere, in Suffolk, successfully 

 clayed and marled 820 acres of sandy heath 

 not many years since, using about 140,000 

 tumbril loads, which, at 8$d. per cubic yard, 

 cost him 4958/. He found, from experience, 

 that clay was to be preferred to marl on all his 

 sandy soils. The result was highly satisfac- 

 tory : 350/. per annum was added to the value 

 of the estate. 



This excellent farmer practised also the sys- 

 tem of hand-barrowing the clay. "The men 

 make good earnings at 10</. a cubic yard, 

 wheeling it 30 rods; and down to Id. a yard at 

 shoiter distances:" and on the whole, deemed 

 this " the cheaptM method of all others, espe- 

 cially on heavier soils." But he did by far the 

 greatest part by tumbrils, the expense of \vhich, 

 by contract carting, and labour, was 8d. per 

 cubic yard. He found also, contrary to the 

 commonly received opinion, that deep ploughing 

 826 



was the best for his marled and clayed lands 

 " I have found," he said, " that the clay and 

 marl works the better, the more soil it has to 

 incorporate with." 



One cause of the failures which have some- 

 times taken place in the attempted improve 

 ment of soils by their admixture, arises from 

 the want of a thorough union of the heavy clays, 

 added to the light sandy soils. The earths were 

 in these cases never incorporated by the aid 

 of the harrow, on such frosty mornings as are 

 best adapted to the mixture, and, in conse- 

 quence, the more ponderous lumps of clay or 

 marl were allowed to gradually si.ik, as the 

 farmers say, into the sand ; and in some such 

 soils as these, the stratum of clay and marl 

 which was applied 10 years since may now be 

 found in one unbroken seam, at a depth of 12 

 or 14 inches in the soil. Such erroneous modes 

 of applying the earths are much to be lamented : 

 they decide no controverted question, they 

 prejudice the unreflecting cultivator, they 

 add nothing to the common stock of agricultu- 

 ral knowledge. 



This error was noted by the late General 

 Vavasour : he told the farmers very correctly, 

 that under a poor sand, a stratum of clay, marl, 

 or other substance peculiarly adapted to give 

 fertility to the soil will generally be found 

 that nature seems to have designed that no land 

 should be unproductive, and if any be unfruit- 

 ful, the cause is in the ignorance or indolence 

 of man. If clay marl, he thought, could be 

 had at a convenient distance, 75 cubic yards 

 per acre was a good covering ; if of a shelly 

 or soapy marl, 20 or 25 yards will be sufficient 

 The marl, after being spread, should be repeat- 

 edly rolled and harrowed, to divide and pul- 

 verize it the better. 



The application of sand to the farmers' 

 heavy clay soils is a practice which, in several 

 districts of' England, is attended with very 

 decided success. Thus, in that part of Suffolk 

 which is bounded on two sides by the rivers 

 Orwell and Stour, there is found a fine red 

 sand abounding with shells, both in their per- 

 fect and broken state, which, when applied to 

 the clay soils at the rate of 20 to 30 tons per 

 acre, is productive of very excellent perma- 

 nent good effects. 



In the valley of the Kennett, in Berkshire, in 

 similar proportions I have witnessed the use 

 of the gravelly debris of the Bath Road used 

 upon the peaty soils of that district with excel- 

 lent effect, and with equal success on some 

 stiff clay meadow-land; the result of dressing 

 it with about 30 tons per acre with the same 

 road-sand is equally decided. The land is not 

 only prevented from cracking in the summer 

 months, but the produce of grass is very mate- 

 rially increased. 



The employment of sea-sand is a very an- 

 cient custom in the west of England; it is one. 

 in fact, to which no one can assign the period 

 of its commencement: many thousand tons 

 per annum are carried away by the farmers 

 who cultivate the lands in the neighbourhood 

 of Padstow Harbour, even on horses' backs, 

 and they think it well worth their while to carry 

 this sand some miles into the interior of the 

 country. In a similar manner the farmers of 



