SOILS. 17 



exposure to the air, they still retain a considerable quantity of 

 moisture or water, the clayey earths containing, when appa- 

 rently dry, one fourth of their weight, while the lighter kinds 

 hold only from a tenth to a twentieth part of the fluid, accord- 

 ing as the sand predominates. It would seem that this circum- 

 stance gives to clayey soils the advantage which they possess 

 over those which are light and sandy. But clays may never- 

 theless be too solid and compact to admit of the extension of 

 the roots of plants in search of food, and in such case the evil 

 is to be corrected by the application of sand, or some other 

 substance, coal ashes, for instance, calculated to destroy this 

 undue quality of adhesion.* 



SAND or gravel, sometimes called silex, silicious matter, or 

 earth of flints, is distinguished by properties of a totally op- 

 posite character. 1. It is incapable of retaining water when 

 poured on it, and far more of attracting moisture from the 

 atmosphere. 2. It powerfully promotes putrefaction, but it 

 suffers the gases set at liberty to escape, and the soluble fluid 

 matter to descend. 3. There is little or no cohesion among 

 its several parts. 



This class of soils belongs to that denominated the light or 

 free. They are readily distinguished from the stiff or clayey 

 by their smaller degree of tenacity. They are less suited for 

 the production of wheat and beans than the clays, but they are 

 well adapted for the production of plants cultivated for their 

 roots and tubers, as the turnip and potato. This class of soils 

 may be divided into two kinds, or sub-classes, differing from 

 each other in certain characters, but agreeing in the common 

 property of being less tenacious in their parts than the clays. 



The sandy soils partake of all the degrees, from barrenness 

 to fertility. When wholly without cohesion in their parts, 

 they are altogether barren, and are only rendered productive 

 by the admixture of other substances, such as marl, clay, shells, 

 peat, vegetable earth, &c. It frequently happens that under 

 the sand itself, or in the immediate neighbourhood, the very 

 materials may be found so essential to its improvement. This 

 is the case in parts of New Jersey, Delaware, the Eastern 

 Shore of Maryland, and in many other localities, especially 

 along the southern seaboard. 



Sandy soils, being easily cultivated, are valuable, unless of 

 the poorest class. And in this case they may, by a proper and 

 judicious course of treatment, be made to possess a greater co- 

 hesiveness in their particles. They may therefore be fertile 

 by nature, or rendered so by art; and then they become of 



* Nicholson's Farmer'.s Assistant. 



