500 OCTOBER. 



that work great improvements; r nor waste lands, 

 which, under that false denomination, are often 

 found the most profitable of all. 



The sound, mellow, rich, putrid, crumbling, 

 sandy loams, are of all soils the most profitable ; 

 such as will admit tillage soon after rain, and do 

 not bake on hot gleams of sun coming after heavy 

 rains, when finely harrowed: such land is better 

 worth forty shillings an acre than many soils de- 

 serve five. 



The next soil I shall mention is that of the stiff 

 loam, which is nearest allied to brick earth ; this, 

 till drained, is in general an unkindly soil, without 

 plenty of manure. It is known in winter by being 

 very adhesive upon walking over it ; is long in dry- 

 ing, even when little or no water is seen upon it; 

 for which reason it is generally late in the spring 

 before it can be ploughed. When quite dry, it 

 breaks up neither so hard and cloddy as mere clay, 

 nor near so crumbly and mellow as the good loam. 

 If it is in stubble, it^is apt to be covered with a 

 minute green moss. There are many varieties of 

 this soil, but all agree in most of these circum- 

 stances, and in being what the farmers call poor, 

 cold, hungry land. When hollow-ditched, and 

 greatly manured, it yields any thing ; but those 

 who hire it should forget neither of these ex- 

 penccs. 



The gravelly soils are numerous in their kind, 

 and very different in their natures. Warm, dry, 

 sound gravelly loams, are easily distinguished in 



winter. 



