A N I) M () n T I C U L T U K A L REGISTER. 



PUntlSHRD BV JOSEPH BUEl-K & CO., NO. 52 NOUTH MVIIKKT STIIKKT, (AomcuLTiaAL WA»tnoo««.)-ALLEN PUTNAM, liDlTOK. 



POSTON, WEnNKSDAY EVKNINlJ, .AIKiUSP W, 18J1. 



[KO. 8. 



N . E . FARMER. 



Kroin FeMonden's Compleio Fannor. 



SOILS. 



\ farmer should be well inrnnnfd of ihe nnliirc 

 Ills, !»iul of iho various plants nd.ipt'd to them, 

 no usc-liil pi lilts flourish best in «lnt in callod 

 r land ; mul, if cultivators were pfrl'ectly nc- 

 iitcJ ivith Ihi" nrt of adapting pi:nils to soils, 

 li iimnurp mi^ht be saved, ivliich is wasted by 

 dicious and improper applicnlion. 

 I is iii:pposed by geologistji that llie whole of 

 earlli originally consisted of rocks, of various 

 s or coinbiiuitions. These rocks, by the lapse 

 ges and exposure to air and water, became dis- 

 gr.iled or worn in |iart or altogether to fine par- 

 3, which compose what are callod earths or 

 . Those soils are chiefly silica (sund or earth 

 lilts,) liiiio (or oalcareons earth,) alumina (clay,) 

 inagii'">ii (a mineral suh..<tance.) With these 

 bh'iidi'd animal and vegetable matters in a de- 

 posed or docomposing state, and saline, acid, 

 Ikalinu C('iiibinatioiis. 



laiits ore the most certain indicators of the na- 

 of a soil ; for, while no practical ciillnator 

 Id buy or undertake to till land of which he 



only the resullR of chemical analysis, yet 



•y farmer and gardener who knew the timbi'r 



plants a sml spontaneously produced, would at 



• be able to decide on its value for cultivation. 



was a maxim of Kliyogg, a famous philosophi- 



farmer o( Switzerland, "that every species of 



h may be instrumental to the improvement of 



her of opposite qiiclities." All sands are hot 



dry — oil clays, cold and wet; and, tlierefore, 



manuring sandy lands with clay, or clay land.o 



sand, is best for grain and pulse. But it is 



tiie ii.ilural soil only that the farmer ought to 



idcr, bwl the depth of it, and what lies imnie- 



?ly iindurneath it. For if Ihe richest soil is 



seven or eight inches deep, tmd lies on a cold, 



clay or stone, it will not b-; so fruitl'ul as loan- 



ils that lie on a better understratum. Gravel 



eriiaps. the best under stratum to make the 



pndilic. 



ho best loams and natural earths are of a 

 ht brnwn or hazel color, llcnre they are call- 

 azcl loams. They cut smooth and tolerably 

 , wiilioui clinging to the spade or ploughshare ; 

 lig'it, friable, and fall into small clods without 

 ping or cracking in dry weather, or turning 

 mortar '»hen wet. Dark grey and rasset 

 Ids are accounted the next best. The worst 



are tin' light and dark ash colored. Tie 

 Iness of land may also be very well judcfod of 

 fie smell and Ihe touch. 'I'he best emits a 

 1, pleasant ccent on being dug or plowed up, 

 cfilly after rain; and being a just prop>rticn 

 iiu and clay intimately blended, will not stick 

 h til the fingers on handling. But all soils, 

 pvr gooil, may he impoverished, and even 

 1 out, by successive crops without rest, espe- 



cially if the pliiwinga iirc not very frequently re- 

 peated before the seed is sown. 



If wo examine tracts of land which have not 

 been ciilcivnted, we find nature has nduptcd difle- 

 rent kinds of plants to most of the distinguishable 

 varieties of soils ; and though some belonging to 

 one may fur sonic cause or other be found on lands 

 "fa different quality, they seldom thrive, or per- 

 fect their sci'ds s) as to become general. The 

 great care of the larnicr ought, therefore, tn be, by 

 proper mixtures to reduce his land tn that state 

 and temi:erainent in whicli the extremes of hot and 

 cold, wet and dry, are best corrected by each oth- 

 er ; to give thoiii every possible advanfige flowing 

 from the benign infliu'iices of sun and air; and to 

 adopt such kinds of plants as they nfTonl in this 

 state the greatest nourishment to ; and to renew 

 their fertility by a judicious allowance of the most 

 proper manures. Where these things an; don'', 

 there are few spots so unfriendly to cultivation as 

 not to repay his expenses and labor with a plentiful 

 increase. But without these, the best tracts of 

 land will in lime become a barren wasti', or pro- 

 dune little but woods. 



The color of soils is important The Farmer's 

 Jiiiirnal observes, coal ashes were sprinkled over 

 half the surface of beds sown with peas, beans, &c., 

 and on these the plants invariably appeared above 

 ground tvto or llirre days earlier, obviously on ac- 

 cniint of the increased warmth; it being a well- 

 known fact that dark-coll. red bodies absorb caloric 

 more readily and i:i larger proportions than those 

 of a lighter hue. 



Soils which absorb the most moisture arc the 

 must fertile. Sir Ilumphrry Davy observed, "I 

 have compareil the absorbent powers of many soils 

 with respect to atmospheric mo'sture, and I have 

 always found it greatest in the most fertile soils ; 

 so that it affords one method of judging of the pro- 

 ductiveness of land." 



The Methods of improving soils arc loo nume- 

 rous to be here fully specified. We will, howev- 

 er, quote one mode of restoring worn-out fields to 

 the fertility of new lands, or lands lately cleared 

 from their aboriginal growtli of timber, quoted from 

 a " Dissertation on the Mixture of Soils," for which 

 the author, the Rev. Morrel Allen, of Pembroke, 

 .Mass., was awarded a preuiium by the Plymouth 

 Couniy Agricultural Society. 



"Particles in a soil which had long been in con- 

 tact, and in consequence of long connexion, lost 

 much of the energy of their action on plants, are 

 separated in mixing soils, placed in now connex- 

 ions, and act with renewed vigor. But the most 

 permanent and best effects are always expectoil 

 from the mixture of soils of different qualities. — 

 When the object is to j)roduce as much immediate 

 influence as possible, merely to assist one short ro- 

 tation of crops, to have the application we make 

 act chiefly as manure, then we may take our ma- 

 terials from any situation where we know vegeta- 

 ble substances have fallen and decayed. 



" We may go into forests, and in certain stages 

 of the growth of the wood, without any perceptible 

 injury, skim the surface of the whole lot. This 



soil of the woods, carried in suflicicntly large 

 quantifies iin to old fields, will restore them lo 

 original productiveness. And this will sometiincs 

 prove an inexhaustible resource for renewing old 

 fields; for as often as the fields decline, the »oil in 

 the wood lot will be again renewed and fit to re 

 move. Fit the same purposes the earth should be 

 carried from the sides nf walls and fences, where 

 the leaves liave been lodged fr'im the fori'st". It 

 should also be carried from hollows and temporary 

 pund.^. which in certain seasons of llie year become 

 dry, and aflord immense quantities of vegetable 

 matter in diflerent stages of decomposition, and 

 suitable to ap"ly to any kind of soil. 



" Where streams of water occasionally overflow 

 the banks, an abiindAiice of vegetable and earthy 

 matter is lotged on the meadows, wliich in many 

 cases, especially where thi're is not much extent of 

 meadow to receive the substances conveyed bv the 

 stream, it is prudent to remove on to higher land. 

 It will there act as manure, and at the same time 

 gradually alter the texture of the soil, rendering it 

 more retentive of i\e\v and rain, and easily pene- 

 trated by the fibrous roots of plants. Of the value 

 of those substances whir:hare carried in streams 

 of water lo enrich soils, we have the most convinc- 

 ing proof in the unexampled productiveness of in- 

 terval lands. It is not exclusively the vegetable 

 substances carried on to these lands which make 

 them so astonishingly productive; there is a por- 

 tion of every kind of soil existing in the surround- 

 ing country annually carried on with the vegetable 

 substances. Intervals are composed of every sort 

 of earth the water can reach and remove. This 

 circumstance may properly enroiirugc the mixtures 

 of many kinds of earth, even when Iheie is no par- 

 ticular evidence that each kind is especially adapt- 

 ed to remedy any deficiency in the soil which we 

 woiilil improve. There is less hazard in adminis- 

 tering medicines in great profusion to cure diseases 

 in the soil, than in the human body. In steppin" 

 out of the beaten path of habitual practice, and 

 calling attention to experiments, which to some 

 may look very simple and to others very absurd, 

 we may hocome instrumental in the discovery of 

 highly important truths." 



It will not do, however, to spread pond mud di- 

 rectiy on grass land or on arable ground. An ex- 

 perienceil farmer informs us, that he once injured 

 a piece of grass land by spreading pond mud upon 

 it without preparation. It should be mixed with 

 lime and warmer manure, and exposed to the at- 

 mosphere, or put into the barn-yard to be trodden 

 upon by cattle. 



Arthur Young lays it ('own as a maxim, that a 

 strong, harsh, tenacious clay, though it will yield 

 great crops of wheat, is yet managed at so heavy 

 expense, that it is usually let fiir more than it is 

 worth. Alnch money is not made on such land. — 

 The very contrary soil, a light, poor, dry sand, is 

 very often, indeed, in the occupation of men who 

 have made fortunes. Some permanent manure is 

 usually below the surface, which answers well to 

 carry on ; and sheep, the common stock of such 

 soils, is the most profitable sort he can depend on. 



