NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



293 



people must live in towns and villages, and therefore 

 let us raise the condition of towns and villages, and 

 especially of rural towns and villages, by all possible 

 means ! 



But we are republican; and— shall we confess it? — 

 we are a little vexed, that as a people generally, we 

 do not see how much in America we lose by not 

 using the advantages of republicanism. AVe mean 

 now, for refined culture, physical comfort, and the 

 like. Republican education we are now beginning 

 prett}' well to understand the value of; and it will 

 not be long before it will be hard to find a native 

 citizen who cannot read and write. And this comes 

 by making every man see what a great moral and 

 intellectual good comes from cheerfully bearing a 

 part in the burden of popular education. Let us 

 next take up popular refinement in the arts, man- 

 ners, social life, and innocent enjoyments, and we 

 shall sec what a virtuous and educated republic can 

 really become. 



Besides this, it is the proper duty of the state, 

 that is, the people, to do in this way what the reign- 

 ing power does in a monarchy. If the kings and 

 princes in Germany, and the sovereign of England, 

 have made magnificent parks and pleasure gardens, 

 and thrown them wide open for the enjoyment of all 

 classes of the people, (the latter, after all, having to 

 pay for it,) may it not be that our sovereign people 

 will (far more cheaply, as they may) make and sup- 

 port these great and healthy sources of pleasure and 

 refinement for themselves in America ? We believe 

 so ; and we confidently wait for the time when pub- 

 lic parks, public gardens, public galleries, and taste- 

 ful villages, shall be among the peculiar features of 

 our happy republic. — Horticulturist. 



COMPOSITION OF SOILS. 



Clay is a compound of silica and alumina, chem- 

 ically combined. Much of the ordinary clay obser- 

 vable in this country, and, indeed, wherever this earth 

 exists, contains an extra quantity of silica in the 

 form of sand, and of various degrees of fineness. 

 This, however, may be easily separated by boiling in 

 water; that portion.of it which is in a state of actual 

 combination with it, can be separated only by the 

 action of chemical re-agents. In all clays there is 

 found a quantity of iron in a state of greater or less 

 oxidation, and it has been supposed that this metal 

 constitutes an essential part of every clayey mass. 

 Hence we have clays of various colors — black, and 

 yellow, brown, anil red ; the shade or distinguishing 

 hue varying in accordance with the different degrees 

 of oxidation — the black designating the lowest, 

 and the red the highest. Oxygen of iron is also fre- 

 quently combined with acids, especially phosphoric, 

 in marshes, where the latter is produced by the de- 

 composition of vegetable matter. • 



The origin of clay is no doubt traceable to the 

 disintegration and decomposition of rocky masses. 

 Pure clay, or that which is ordinarily contemplated 

 in this light, is wisely eschewed by the practical cul- 

 tivator, familiar with the characteristics of soils, as 

 totally unsusceptible of profitable cultivation. When 

 wet, it adheres in jjlastic glutuious masses, retaining 

 water, and exhibiting a nature so adhesive as not to 

 admit of being worked. When dry, it is compact, 

 solid, and impermeable. Lands ordinarily denomi- 

 nated clayey arc among the best grass soils, produ- 

 cing abundantly, and maintaining their vegetative 

 powers unimpaired for years. In all such soils, 

 however, there will, upon examination or analysis, 

 be discovered a very large per cent, of silex, or earth 

 of a diametrically opposite nature. The action of 

 this upon the clayey corpuscles, or atoms, is to de- 



stroy their adhesiveness, and impart to the mass a 

 degree of pulverulent power, which has a most 

 emendatory eff'ect m preparing the soil for the suc- 

 cessful action of the plough, and the sustenance and 

 support of valuable crops of vegetables, grass, and 

 grains. Fields which the utmost ingenuity of man 

 will fail to render productive, and which the appli- 

 cation of whole cargoes of putrescent manure would 

 be insufficient to render permanently productive, in 

 consequence of the fatal predominance of this prim- 

 itive earth, may, however, be ameliorated, and 

 brought to a condition of great and astonishing 

 fruitfulness, by the use of sand. The quantity ne- 

 cessary to be applied to insure this amelioration, of 

 the constitutional texture, we can decide accurately 

 only by experiment. One thing, however, is cer- 

 tain : no clayey soil will be likely to receive injury 

 from large applications, and the probability is, that, 

 as a general thing, too little will be accorded, rather 

 than too much. 



It may here be proper to remark that the three 

 ingredients of which clay is composed, namely, alu- 

 mina, silica, and oxide of iron, are united in it in 

 very variable projjortions. So great, indeed, is this 

 discrepancy, that two specimens are rarely to be met 

 with which are not distinguished by some appre- 

 ciable difference. The predominance of silica is 

 often so great, that it amounts to not less than nine- 

 ty-three parts in one hundred. Alumina seldom 

 constitutes the principal part of it, but such is the 

 peculiar nature of the latter, that when clay has been 

 freed from silica by washing it, it is still found to 

 exist in two different states, — first, a sort of sedi- 

 ment or deposit, which is discoverable after the clay 

 has been boiled a considerable time in a sufficient 

 quantity of water, and which cannot be called sand, 

 though it consists of grains or granules of exceeding 

 minuteness, and smaller, even, than the atoms 

 precipitated from a solution of Hints. These mat- 

 ters, however, pertain rather to the laboratory than 

 the field : to follow them out may be productive of 

 important advantages in the details and application 

 of science, but they are involved in too much ab- 

 struseness to be profitably dwelt upon here. 



It is enough for the practical farmer to know, that 

 by a liberal application of sand to his viscid and glu- 

 tinous clays, together with a quantity of fermentable 

 manure, he may so far ameliorate their texture as to 

 render them susceptible of profitable cultivation ; 

 and that lands once thoroughly ameliorated by the 

 application of this constitutional alterant, are pos- 

 sessed of a permanent value which can never be im- 

 parted to them in any other way. A friend writing 

 to me not long since, on a topic associated indirectly 

 with this subject, in concluding his letter, says, — 



" I have recently attempted the improvement of a 

 portion of my estate by the means you recommended 

 in your letter of last June, and am confident that the 

 means used will more than reahze my most sanguine 

 expectations, as I have since noticed the beneficial 

 effects of it on a farm in an adjoining town. The 

 land was a clay field, so poor tliat nothing had grown 

 upon it, that could be considered valuable, for many 

 yciwrs. It was ploughed, harrowed, and sanded — 

 not less than two hundred cart-loads of fine road 

 sand having been applied to an acre, and harrowed 

 in. After this, about ten cords of long manure were 

 applied, and covered by the same implement. The 

 field was then struck off into rows eighteen inches 

 apart, and potatoes dropped in the usual manner of 

 planting that crop. 'The yield teas exuberant! I 

 have not been able to ascertain with accuracy the 

 amount, buj; my friend, the owner, informed me that 

 it was the heaviest ever produced on his farm. Gyp- 

 sum, after the rate of three bushels to the acre, was 

 appUed directly to the plants after hoeing." 

 — <j«rmantown Tele<fraph. 



