No. 6. 



On IinproviniT Clay Soils. 



1S,9 



and wash each cow's udder clean before inilk- 

 in2:; dovv.se the udder with cold water, winter 

 and summer, as it braces, and rei)els heat.", 

 David IIkymacker. 



Ontliebcst nicaiiAof pcrinai>cntly Iniprov* 

 iiij5 tUc class of Clay Soils. 



Clay soils are distiiifrnished by tiieir adhe- 

 siveness. Tlicy stick to the feet when damp, 

 they imbibe moisture slowly, but do not trans- 

 mit it freely for tlie use of phmts, and when 

 strong clay .soils arc bronfjlit ([uickly from a 

 wet to a dry state, they approacli to the state 

 of bricks previous to their beinix burned. Clay 

 soils are tilled with difficulty wiien too dry, 

 and when too wet this operation has the same 

 effect as the tempering of clay has, in the 

 art of brick making. 



The tillage of such land in a proper state 

 is therefore of the greatest importance, and 

 this is best performed when it is neither too 

 wet nor too dry. 



Poor thin clays upon a retentive subsoil are 

 the most unprofitable ; the expense of their cul- 

 tivation, under the present system is great, 

 being frequently equal to the value of the 

 produce, and sometimes far above it. Their 

 natural produce is coansc grass of very light 

 value, tu oidy f^)r young beasts. 



Clay soils are best calculated for the pro- 

 duction of plants that have fibrous roots, par- 

 ticularly wheat, beans, oats, vetches, clover, 

 cabbage, grass, &,c. | 



While the light sandy soils have been 

 greatly improved by the adoption of a new 

 system of culture, the poor clays remain in 

 the same state they were in a century ago, 

 without any increase to their productiveness; 

 indeed they are rather in a worse state than 

 formerly. It is therefore supposed by some 

 agriculturists, that as there have been no 

 improvements in the clay soils, while there 

 has been so great an incrca.se in the produc- 

 tiveness of sandy soils that the clays are not 

 susceptible of improvement with the least 

 chance of a proper return. 



There is no doubt but a better system could 

 be adopted for the cultivation of such strong 

 clay soils than that which is pursued in the 

 common fields, and on the clays of Bedford, 

 Huntington, Cambridge, and other counties 

 on the malm, gault, oak-tree, clunch, Oxfijrd 

 and blue lias clays. 



The course of cropping adopted in the com- 

 mon fields and on thin clay, is summer tiillow, 

 if dunged, wheat, and then beans; or without 

 dung, barley, then oats, then fillow again, 

 and this is the same as it was 100 years ago. 

 The chief cause of thus neglecting the 

 clay soils is the difficulty and expense of cul- 

 tivating them and of converting them into 

 pasture, after having been long kept under] 

 this system of arable cultivation. It is diffi- 



cult to convert such land into good pa.sture, 

 but it has been overcome and the best and 

 most profitable results have followed.' 



There is a much greater difficulty in get- 

 ting a poor, cold, clay tarm lot, than one con- 

 sisting of a poor sandy soil. The capital and 

 ability rc{]uired for the former being not only 

 much greater, and of a higher ordt^r, but the 

 risk is also much more in cultivating the clay, 

 than the sand, as the mode of improving the 

 land and securing good crops on sandy soils 

 by clay in'; is easy and certain, and the turnep 

 and sheep husbandry cannot be adopted on 

 clay.s. 



Besides, the system of cultivating light 

 .sand or loamy soils has been so long established, 

 and the Norfolk or f )ur-Rcld system has now 

 become so much the beaten track, that it 

 would be difficult for the farmers who have 

 been brought up to it, to leave off, although 

 a better one were shown them. 



The turnep, and sheep system, however, 

 cannot be adopted on clay soils, till they are 

 completely drained and subsoil ploughed, and 

 till .sand or light and porous matter bo added 

 to alter their texture. 



Some new impulse must be given to agri- 

 cultural speculations before the cold wet clay 

 soil will ever attain that degree of improve- 

 ment which they are capable of, and which 

 has been effiscted in the sandy and peaty 

 soils. 



There is no doubt, however, but thin clay 

 soils could be easily improved, and, perhaps, 

 in a much greater degree than the sandy soils 

 have been during the last forty years; and 

 the surface may yet be seen clothed with a 

 rich herbage which shall vie with that of other 

 soils in producing the best cheese, beef, and 

 mutton. 



Clay soils will produce pasture just in pro- 

 portion to the quantity of decaying active ve- 

 getable matter in their composition. If this 

 be abundant, the crop will be rich and luxuri- 

 ant ; and the decaying fibrous roots will form a 

 dry, porous soil, giving a sutBcient depth for 

 the rain to sink through the subsoil, where it 

 will run off by the furrow drains. If there 

 be little voo-etable matter in the soil, the 

 moisture will make the earthy matter in it 

 collapse and adhere together; and it will form 

 a cold, wet, sterile clay, producing little else 

 but carnation grass of little value. 



Pasture on clay soils should never be con- 

 verted into arable culture, unless the applica- 

 tion of skill and capital, will not only repay 

 the additional expense of the culture, but al-:o 

 tend to increase the permanent prfxluctivenej^s 

 of the soil. Without a proper application of 

 skill, capital, and industry on such land, the 

 converting it into arable culture will only tend 

 to diminish the produce, if the free produce 



