16 GENERAL REMARKS. 



that I am an advocate for early sowing and planting, even at 

 the risk of losing a little seed, provided the ground be fit to 

 receive it. A light, sandy soil will be benefited if worked 

 when moist, as such treatment will have a tendency to make 

 it more compact ; on the contrary, if a clayey soil be worked 

 when too wet, it kneads like dough, and never fails to bind 

 when drought follows ; and this not only prevents the seed 

 from rising, but injures the plants materially in their subse- 

 quent growth, by its becoming impervious to moderate rains, 

 dews, air, and the influence of the sun, all of which are 

 necessary to the promotion of vegetation. 



Some gardeners, as well as some writers, recommend 

 certain fixed days for sowing and planting particular kinds 

 of seed; I think it necessary to guard my readers against being 

 misled. The failure of crops may be often attributed to the 

 obsei'vance of certain days for sowing. If some kinds of seed 

 be sown when the ground is wet and cold, they will become 

 chilled in the ground, and seldom vegetate. If they be sown 

 in very dry weather, the germinative parts of the seed may 

 become injui^ed by the burning rays of the sun, or the young 

 plants may get devoured by insects as fast as they come up. 

 To obviate these difficulties, I have generally allowed a week 

 or ten days for sowing the seed, intending the medium as the 

 proper time for the vicinity of New- York. With this clearly 

 borne in mind, the reader who observes the difference in the 

 degrees of heat and cold in the different paits of the country, 

 will know how to apply these instructions accordingly. 



Much depends on the manures used on particular kinda 

 of soil. The gi'eat art of improving sandy and clayey soils, 

 consists in gi'V'ing the former such dressings of clay, cow 

 dung, and other kinds of manure, as will have a tendency to 

 bind and make them more compact, and consequently, more 

 retentive of moisture ; and to the latter, coats of horse dung, 

 ashes, sand, and such other composts as may tend to sepa- 

 rate the particles and open the pores of the clay, so as to 

 cause it to approach as nearly as possible to a loam. 



