354 



The Productive Poivers of Nature. 



Vol. II. 



the soil, by means of coinmutation, be fitted 

 to retain tiie quantity of water requisite to 

 produce those juices, tlie addition of manure 

 will be useless. Manure is ineffectual to- 

 wards vegetation, until it becomes soluble in 

 water; and it would even remain useless in a 

 state of solution if it so absorbed the water as 

 entirely to exclude the air: for in that case 

 tiie fibres or mouths of the plants would be 

 unable to perform their functions, and they 

 would soon drop off by decay." 179, Stew- 

 ard. 



It is necessary that the animal and vegeta- 

 ble matter in the soil should have this decom- 

 posing disposition, and the soil have it in pro- 

 portion, to the proper admixture of the mate- 

 rials of which it is composed. 



A certain degree of heat, the influence of 

 the atmosphere and water, are necessary to 

 carry on the decomposition of animal and ve- 

 getable matter in tiie soil. The best consti- 

 tuted soil therefore has the power of inibibing, 

 retaining, and giving up to plants a proper 

 degree of heat, air, and moisture. When the 

 atmosphere is warm, moist, and sultry, vege- 

 table life is in the greatest vigor, which 

 would indicate these to be necessary to vege- 

 table life if not the very principles on which 

 it depends. 



Soil should not only have an affinity for the 

 moisture of the atmosphere, but it should also 

 have the property of readily transmitting it to 

 the vegetables which grow in it. 



The soil, therefore, which is best adapted 

 for retaining and transmitting in all circum- 

 .stances of wet and dry weather, the necessa- 

 ry quantity of moisture to growing plants, 

 may be reckoned best and most productive. 



If we impart to any soil that which mduces 

 TCgetation, we improve it and increase its 

 productiveness; but if we in any way with- 

 draw from it that which tends to produce ve- 

 getation, we injure it and may make it sterile. 

 Barrenness in soil is produced when the com- 

 ponent parts of it are so firmly united, that 

 air, water, and the influence of the sun can- 

 not enter into combination with it. When a 

 soil is pure clay, it is sterile and worthless, 

 and so is that which is pure sand. The for- 

 mer resists effectually the enriching influence 

 of the rains and dues, which merely fall on its 

 surface, and either run off or lie there, with- 

 out penetrating into it. The sun and wind 

 also may beat on it and blow over it, but they 

 can never penetrate its mass to awaken up 

 the dormant energy that lies within; they 

 only have the effect by their repeated attacks 

 to dry and harden the surface, crack it into 

 irregular portions, and more firmly to lock up 

 any languid and dormant principles of veffo- 

 table life that may be within the mass. The 

 latter is so porous and loose in its texture that 

 the rain and dews no sooner fall on it, than 



they pass through it rapidly like water through 

 a sieve; the rays of the sun and the wind 

 evaporate and dry up the last particles that 

 remain, producing only a transitory effect on 

 vegetation, and because they have no regular 

 supply of moisture, the plants soon wither and 

 decay. 



The energies of the soil are frequently held 

 in bondage by some pernicious quality inher- 

 ent in it, or imparted to it, which if neutral- 

 ized or extracted the soil would become pro- 

 ductive. 



When light, sandy, and vegetable soils are 

 artificially made lighter, they possess little of 

 the principles of vegetation. The mechani- 

 cal disposition of a clayey soil is also deranged 

 by improper treatment, such as trampling or 

 ploughing it in wet weather; and although 

 the soil has a full supply of animal and vege- 

 table manure in it. yet the mechanical de- 

 rangement so totally locks up all its energies, 

 that the fermentation so necessary is alto- 

 gether stopped, and complete barrenness is 

 the result. 



This we have frequently observed to occur 

 from land being trampled by sheep in eating 

 off turneps from strong clay soil during wet 

 weather, in the early part of the spring. 



They convert the surface into a complete 

 puddle, and when it becomes dry, the parts 

 composing the soil are so closely united to- 

 gether, that it is like bricks dried for the kiln, 

 and is entirely unfit for the production of 

 plants. It is evident that the causes of ste- 

 rility in these soils are opposed to each other; 

 each therefore will require a mode of treat- 

 ment peculiar to its case. The light, sandy, 

 and vegetable soils, that are too friable, must 

 be artificially rendered more firm; and the 

 too tenacious clay soils must be made artifi- 

 cially friable and kept so, and be pulverized 

 and mechanically altered before we can ex- 

 pect them to become productive. It is evi- 

 dent if these two soils could be mixed together, 

 the mixture, with a proper quantity of vege- 

 table and animal manure, would make a good 

 productive soil. 



John Morton. 



For the Farmers' Cahinet. 



liiine, liime, liime. 



The extensive and increasing use of lime 

 for agricultural purposes, indicates the opin- 

 ions of farmers in regard to its usefulness; 

 and although the theory of its operations in 

 promoting the growth of plants seems not to 

 be very well understood or explained, yet ex- 

 perience has taught us that the best and most 

 profitable mode for its application is on the 

 sward, or grrss sod, as long before it is broken 

 up by the plough as possible; it being found 

 most beneficial to keep it as near the surface of 

 the ground as practicable; and the same is true 



