AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



PUBLISHED By JOSEPJl URKCK &. CO., NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agh.cultural Warehouse.) 



OL. .VVI. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 7, 1838. 



NO. 31. 



^^iaig<2Wl£>^W2SiAS.a 



SOIL. 



(Continued.) 

 ill autlior who has sucoes-sfiiily e.V|.laincH the 

 lire of peat, has ncIo|ite<l tlio fullowiiig classifi- 

 ion: 1. Fibrous; 2. Compact; and, 3. Biliirii- 

 us peat ; 4. Peat mixed with calcareous mat- 

 5. With sand or clay ; 6. With pyrite.s ; and, 

 tVith marine salt. Each of these iic contends, 

 ers essentially in its composition and chemical 

 lities; and alinve all each species requires dif- 

 nt treatment, in order to convert it, either into 

 )il, or into manure. 



in converting peat into earth, it is a rule to 

 ligh and dig it in nutunjn, that it may be effec- 

 lly exposed .to the winter's frost. If this work 

 not commenced at a proper season of the year, 

 if the peat be once haidened by the summer's 

 , it is hardly possible afterwards to decompose 



["he crops best calctdated for a reclaimed peat 

 or moss, are oals, rye, beans, potatoes, turnip.'^, 

 •ots, cole-seed, white and rod clover, and timo- 

 Wheat and barley liave succeeded on such 

 Is after tliey liave been supplied with ubun- 

 i;e of calcareous eaith ; and tlje fiorin grass, 

 •ostis slolonifera,] seems likewise to be well 

 3ted to th;u description of soil, when moder- 

 Y surface-drained. 



'he improvement of peat bogs, and of all wet 

 Is, must be preceded by draining ; stagnant 

 3r being injurious to all the nutritive cFasses 

 lants. Soft black peat earth, when drained, is 

 1 rendered productive, by the mere a[)plica- 

 of sand and clay as a top drcs.sing. When 

 contains ferruginous salts, calcareous matter 



jsolutely necessary to fit it for cultivation 



jn mosses or bogs abound with the branches, 

 le roots of trees, or when the surface entirely 

 lists of living vegetables, they must either be 

 ied off, or burnt. In the last case, their ashes 

 ish ingredients calculated to improve the tcx- 

 of the peat. For this soil, soap-ashes are 

 d an excellent manure. 



I Leicestershire, and various other counties, 

 have great tracts of meadow land, which in 

 y instances, are the sites of lakes filled up, 

 •oil of which is composed of peat and sedi- 

 t; the former originally formed by aquatic 

 tation, and the latter brought down by rains 

 strt'ams from tlie upland. This forms a soil 

 irably calculated for grass, 

 he fens in Cambridgeshire, Lineolnsliire, and 

 ral other districts in England, likewise con- 

 )f peat and sediment. They are pared and 

 t for cole-seed, to be fed off by sheep, who 

 leir manure enrich the soil. After two 'crops 

 rain, they arc sown with' grass seeds, (two 

 els of rye-grass, and eijlit or ten pounds of 

 e clover,) and remain in grass for five, six, or 

 n years ; the longer the better. In the fens, 

 s and turnips, have been cultivated, but have 



not been found to answer ; nor can fen land be 

 fallowed, /or it does not hear much stirring. Po- 

 tatoes, and above all, carrots, may be tried as an 

 intervening crop, and with a prospect of success. 

 The great object however is, to adopt the mo.st 

 propermanagement of fen or peaty laud for hny 

 crops ; and here it is proper to mention a modern 

 discovery of great moment. It is ascertained, 

 tfiat by suffering the second crop of gras.^ that 

 might often with difficulty be converted into hay 

 to rot upon the ground, an immen.se produce of 

 hay is ensured fur the succeeding year, and that 

 fen land may thus become a per[>etiial hay mead- 

 ow. This important fact is corroborated by some 

 experiments wliicli have been tried near O'Jdeii- 

 arde in Flander.'s, where the same effect has been 

 produced, by leaving the second crop on the 

 ground every second or third year ; the grass pro- 

 duced the succeeding year being of extraordinary 

 length. 



5. Chalk. — Chalky soils principally consist of 

 calcareous matter, mixed with various other sub- 

 stances, in greater or lesser proportions. Where 

 clayey or earthy substances are to he found in 

 such soils in consideral)le quantities, the composi- 

 tion is heavy" and productive ; where sand or 

 gravel abounds, it is light, and often unfertile. 



The crops chiefly cultivatcii on chalky soils, are 

 pease, turnips, barley, clover, and wheat ; 'and 

 however much the soil is exhausted, it will pro 

 (luce sainfoin. 



The means of ameliorating the texture of chalky 

 soils, are, either by the application of clayey and 

 sandy loams, pure clay or marl ; or where the 

 staple is deficient, by using great quantities of 

 peat, or of water-fed earth. The chalk stratum 

 sometimes lies upon a thick vein of black tenacious 

 marl, of a rich quality, which ought to hedug up, 

 and mixpd with the chalk. 



Tlie ashes of a sort of peat produced in some 

 [larts of Berkshire and Bedfordshire, of a red col. 

 or, and which abound with iron, are found to be 

 highly beneficial to chalky soils, particularly when 

 sown with trefoil, and other grasses ; on such 

 soils, these ashes are of use, not only for crops of 

 barley, but likewise even of oats. 



Chalky soils are in general fitter for tillage, 

 than for grazing ; for, without the plough, the 

 peculiar advantages derived from this soil by sain- 

 foin, (one of the most valuable gra.«ses we owe to 

 the bounty of Providence,) cotil 1 not be obtained. 

 The plough, however, ought not to extend to those 

 fine chalky downs, (called ewe leases in Dorset- 

 shire,) which, by a very attentive management, 

 and in the course of a number of years, have been 

 iTTOught to a considerable degree of fertility, as 

 grazing land, and are so useful to sheep in the 

 winter season. 



A chalky soil that has once been in tillage, is 

 so retentive of water in winter, and previous to 

 the sun's rays ir> summer, that it is the work of 



an age to make it a good pasture of na/urn/ grosses 

 more especially when the chalk lies near the sur- 

 face. Hence, in the western counties of England, 



several thoii.sands of acres of this soil, though not 

 [iloughed for thirty years, have scarcely any grass 

 of tolerable quality upon them, and are literally 

 worth nothing. Such soils ought lo be cultivated 

 in the following manner, as a preparation for sain- 

 foin : 1st year. Pare and bmn for turnips, to be 

 eaten on the land by sheep, with the aid of some 

 fodder ; 2d, Barley to be sown very early with 

 clover seed ; 3d, Clover, eaten off by sheep ; 4thV 

 Wheat ; .5th, Turnijip, with manure ; and, 6th, 

 Barley with sainfoin. The corn crops nmst he 

 carefully weeded, and in particular eleai-ed of 

 charlock. Under this .system, which has been 

 successfully practised by acelehralerl Kentish far- 

 mer (Mr Boys of Betshanger) the produce has 

 been great, and the ground has been laid down in 

 the highest order with sainfoin, or any other grass 

 calculated for this sj)ecies of soil. By adopting 

 this system, many thousands of acres might be 

 improved, now lying in a miserable state. 



6. Mluvial Soils. — These are of two sorts; one 

 derived from the sediment of fresh, and the other 

 of salt water. 



Along the-side of rivers, an<l other considerable 

 streams, waft^r-formed soils are to be met with, 

 consisting of tlie decomposed matter of decayed 

 vegetables, with the sediment of sti-eams. They 

 are usually deep and fertile, and not apt to be in- 

 jured by rain, as they usually lie on a bed of open 

 gravel. They are commonly employed as mead- 

 ows, from the hazard of the crops being injured, 

 or carried off by floods, if cultivated. 



Those fine alluvial soils, occasioned by the op- 

 erations of salt water, (called salt marshes in En- 

 gland, and carses in Scotland,) are composed of 

 the finest parts of natural clay, washed off by run- 

 ning water and deposited on flat ground, on the 

 shores of estuaries, where they are formed by the 

 reflux of the tide, and enriched with marine pro- 

 ductions. They generally have a rich, level sur- 

 face, and being deep in the staple they are well 

 adapted for the culture of the most valuable crops. 

 Hence wheat, barley, oats, and clover, are all of 

 them productive on this species ofso.il ; which is 

 likewise peculiarly well calculated for beans, as 

 the tap root pushes vrgorously through it, and 

 finds its nourishment at a great depth. Lime, in 

 considei-able quantities, is found to be the most 

 effectual means of promoting ihe improvement of 

 this species of soil. 



7- Loam — Where a soil is moderately cohesive, 

 less tenacious than clay, and more so than sand, 

 it is known by the name of loam. From its fre- 

 quency, there is reason to suppose that, in some 

 cases, it might be called an original soil. At the 

 same time a constant course of tillage for ages, the 

 application of fertilizing manures, and where nec- 

 essary, mixing any particular substance in which 

 the soil is deficient, (as clay with sand, or sand 

 where clay predominates,) will necessary convert 

 a soil thus treated into a loam. 

 (To be continued.) 



Nothing will fatten sheep quicker than apples. 



