NEW E]\GL.A]^D FARMER. 



PUBLISHED BY J. B. RUS SELL, NO. 52, N OKTU MARKET STREET, (at thk Ackiculturai.'wap.khouse.)- T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOL. X. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 29, 1832. 



NO. 33. 



ORIGINAL AGRICULTURAL ESSAYS. 



DISSERTATION ON THE MIXTURE OF 

 SOILS. 



ConcluJecl fioni page 950. 



Beds of the most valuable peat often lie several 

 (eet below the surface. When this substance is 

 iruiovcd from its bed and exposed to the action of 

 the atmosphere, it readily yields to a fermenting 

 iiilUience, the first requisite to its becoming a use- 

 ful constituent part of soil. Peat should always 

 be applied to soils, which tend to an excess in fer- 

 mentation. At the same time that it opposes tlie 

 progress of that disease in a soil, it is gradually re- 

 duced to a state of decomposition, in which it con- 

 tains much food of plants. Marl, which is a very 

 rich ingredient in a judicious a[)plication of it to 

 noils, is also found at various distances from the 

 surface in the sulvsoil. Marl is a composition of 

 several substances, and the nature of those sub- 

 stances must be carefully examined to discover on 

 what sort of soil, a particular bed of it can be ap- 

 pUed with the greatest effect. There is what ag- 

 ricultural writers call shell marl. This is a suit- 

 able ajjplicatiou for almost any soil. It is compo 

 sed chiefly of animal substances and lime, and 

 therefore will act in any situation as a powerful 

 stimulant. Mr IJrown, in his treatise on agricul- 

 ture, says, ' It would seem that shell marl, from 

 the qualities it possesses, promotes vegetation in 

 all the different ways. It increases the food of 

 plants ; it communicates to the soil a power of at- 

 tracting this food from the air; it enlarges the 

 pasture of plants ; and it prepares the vegetable 

 food for entering their roots. 



Shell marl is easily distinguished liy the shells 

 which always appear in it; but the similarity be- 

 tween earth tnarl and many other fossil substances, 

 renders it difficult to distinguish them. The com- 

 mon test, however, will be sufficiently certain for 

 all the purposes of the farmer. Earth, that effer- 

 vesces in acids, partakes of the character of inarl, 

 aud the degree of effervesence will pretty accu- 

 rately show to what extent it partakes of that 

 character. But we must not be governed exclu- 

 sively by the strength and richness of marl, in 

 our selection of situations to apply it ; we should 

 also attend to its natural tenacity and the character 

 of the earth about the beds which contain it. If 

 it be silicious earth or coarse gravel, then the 

 marl belongs to cold aud clayey soils. If 

 it be a compact and clayey substance, then the 

 marl should be placed on loose and warm soils. 

 When marl is projierly applied, almost any de- 

 sired degree of richness can be produced by it. 

 .\o other maimre will be necessary in the first 

 rotation of crops. But the same cautions are 

 imporlant in the use of this substance, v.liich are so 

 necessary to be observed in the application of lime. 

 Both marl and lime .stimulate the soil to unusual 

 exertion, and if nothing else for a long succes.sioii 

 of years be applied, there will follow debility, and 

 the land will be reduced to barrenness. This 

 effect is to be feared only in the imprudent and 

 exclusive use of these substances; under pruden; 

 uianagement they are powerful and highly impor- 

 lant agents. In a correct rotation of cropping and 



with occasional supplies of other manures, neither 

 marie nor lime will ever prove injurious. 



By digging deep into the earth, all the mineral 

 substances are found which may impart a new 

 texture to soils, or by acting on the animal aud 

 vegetable matter contained in them, in the decom- 

 position and solution of it, will assist in furnishing 

 food for plants. The fossils, which, mi.xed with 

 soils, will increase the richness and fertility ol 

 them, are very numerous and no more than im- 

 perfectly understood. Every extended advance of 

 the farmer towards the interior regions of the 

 earth, tends to increase our knowledge of the min- 

 eral kingdom ; as it is likely to furnish the chemist 

 with some new subject of analysis. Excavations 

 may sometimes be profitably made in the earth, 

 for the sole purposes, of mixing the materials ol)- 

 tained, with the different soils on the farm. E.x- 

 pcriments of this .sort, if they should not result in 

 any addition to the stock of general knowledge, 

 would certainly increase local knowledge, and 

 would impart more correct ideas of the constituent 

 parts of that poition of the earth in our possession 

 and under our immediate control. The substan- 

 ces taken out of the earth in the various operations 

 of society, should always be carefully examined 

 and experiments made with them. In deep re 

 cesses of the earth are hidden many precioui 

 treasures, and every generation of men have a part 

 to perform in the development of them. 



We descend far into the earth for the fossil 

 nhich now warms so many of our houses, aud on 

 which we depend for lieat in so many of our 

 works of art. There, also, we can find the choi- 

 cest substances to enrich our land. All former 

 researches of this nature have been followed with 

 great reward, and there can be no want of motives 

 to perseverance in the work. The preceding re- 

 marks have been chiefly confined to suTjstances, 

 which, at the same time they improve the texture of 

 the soils, act on them as manures, either by their 

 stimulating influences or by imparting the food of 

 plants. Such substances form the principal re- 

 sources for enriching land, in the progress of 

 improvement on a farm. But there is also a mix- 

 ture necessary as the foundation of improvement 

 in many situations. There are sand barrens and 

 pure clays which produce nothing, and manures 

 applied in the conmion form and measure will 

 have scarcely any influence. A radical deicct ex- 

 ists aud a remedy must first be provided for that, 

 or all our applications will be as iueflectual aird 

 useless, as tlic administration of the most nourish- 

 ing food to a sick man. A soil chiefly composed 

 of sand is too porous; it does not retain enough 

 of moisture ; it admits light and heat so freely as 

 to cause a very rapid dissolution of all the vegeta- 

 ble matters that happen to be incorporated with 

 it. We call it hungry soil and say manure does 

 it no good. We conclude manure docs no good 

 because it never lasts till any crop is matured. 

 Its force is all expended, hke that of a prodigal 

 son, before the highest energies have ever been 

 demanded. 



This soil we should not attempt to cure with 

 mere palliatives ; we should engage at once in the 

 work of changing, totally changing, the texture of 



it. Many of the substances already enumerated 

 can bo applied in such portions, as will greatly 

 alter the cbaracter of a sandy soil. Alluvion, that 

 has been- collected by streams passing over long 

 beds of tenacious earth, with a portion of peat and 

 other vegetable matters, may possibly prove sufli- 

 cient to remedy all the defects of it. But there is 

 a more expeditious and much cheaper method of 

 accomplishing the object. Clay, extensive beds of 

 which are generally found in the neighborhood of 

 sandy soils, if mixed with them in large quantities 

 will immediately and permanently change their 

 character. The particles of tliese opposite sorts 

 of earth will mingle in such a manner, that dews 

 and rain will be well retained in the soil, and light 

 and heat will bo admitted in degrees sufficient to 

 decompose vegetable substances,as fast as the grow- 

 ing plants will require nourishment from them ; but 

 not so fast as before, when there was so rapid a 

 solution that plants were always left destitute of 

 food in au unmatured state. 



The clay pit should always be the first resort in 

 the preparation of sandy barrens, to become fruit- 

 ful fields. No definite rules are necessary in re- 

 lation to the quantity of clay that should be applied ; 

 the eye and the hand will determine with sufficient 

 accuracy enough, when the clay is laid on in suffi- 

 cient portions to retain moisture, wliich is the first 

 aud principal object to be accomplished. Clay, in 

 an unmi.xed state, is represented as the most un- 

 friendly to vegetation of any of the primitive 

 earths. All the properties of it, with the excep- 

 tion of its power to retain moisture, are said to 

 counteract the vegetative principle. And some 

 writers have endeavored to discourage, wholly, 

 the use and application of it as an ingredient iu 

 soils. In poetic style it has been said, 



' He that carls sand makes land. 



He that carts cl.iy flings liis land away.' 



This idea must have been originated in abstract 

 views of the properties of clay, and without any 

 attention to the defects of soils comjiosed chiefly 

 of the opposite earth. Clay, in its natural state, 

 retains too much water for the health and vigor of 

 vegetation ; it is too compact for the roots of plants 

 to extend themselves and collect nourishment ; it 

 powerfully counteracts the process of fermenta- 

 tion, and plants growing in it often sufler in want 

 of the necessary and proper food. Now all these 

 qualities render it a highly inq)ortant apphcaticn 

 on sand. Water passes too soon through .sand, 

 aud it is not compact enough to give shelter, firm- 

 ness, and the necessary protection to the roots of 

 plants. Sand powerfully promotes the putrefac- 

 tive process and often completes it in all the vegeta- 

 ble matter it contain.s, long before the time of 

 maturity in jilants. 



In the language of Agricola, 'sand suffers water 

 to filter easily through its pores ; clay is highly 

 retentive of water ; sand promotes ])Utrefaction, 

 clay delays it ; .sand suft'ers the gases set at liberty 

 in putrefaction to escape ; clay absorbs the eases ; 

 sand opens an unobstructed path for the extension 

 of the roots of vegetables, clay gives them firmness 

 in their course and supplies the moisture, wliicli 

 sustains them. In fine, the two may be classed 

 among the contending elements, of which a union 



