CHAPTER IL* 



ON THE SOILS AND STATE OF AGRICULTURE OP THE TIDE- 

 WATER DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA. 



" DURING several days of our journey, no spot was seen that 



was not covered with a luxuriant growth of large and beautiful 

 forest trees, except where they had been destroyed by the natives 

 for the purpose of cultivation. The least fertile of their fields, 

 when left untilled and without seeding, are soon covered with grass 

 several feet in height ; and unless prevented by subsequent culti- 

 vation, a second growth of trees rapidly springs up, which, without 

 care or attention, attain their giant size in half the time that would 

 be expected on the best lands in England." 



an loose chalk. By the author of the ' Body of Agriculture,' it is said 

 be a clay mixed with sand." (Essay on Manures, ch. 1.) 



than loose chalk. 



to 



Loam, or that species of artificial soil into which the others are gene- 

 rally brought by the course of long cultivation." " Where a soil is mode- 

 rately cohesive, less tenacious than clay, and more so than sand, it is known 

 by the name of loam. From its frequency, there is reason to suppose that 

 in some cases it might be called an 'original soil."* [Sinclair's Code of 

 Agriculture chap. 1.] 



" The word loam should be limited to soils containing at least one-third 

 of impalpable earthy matter, copiously effervescing with acids." [Davy's 

 Agricultural Chemistry Lecture 4.] According to this definition by the 

 most scientific waiter and highest authority in chemical agriculture, if we 

 except the small portion of shelly land, there is certainly not an acre of 

 natural loam between the sea-coast of Virginia and the Blue Ridge Moun- 

 tains and very few even in the limestone region. 



" By loam is meant any of the earths combined with decayed animal or 

 vegetable matter." [Appendix to Agr. Chem. by George Sinclair. ~\ 



"Loam -fat unctuous earth marl." [Johnson's Dictionary, Svo. ed., 

 and also Walker's."^ 



" Loam may be considered a clay of loose or friable consistency, mixed 

 with mica or isinglass, and iron ochre." [Editor of American Farmer ; 

 (old series) vol. iii. } page 320.] 



[* In this and the next following seven chapters (II. to IX. inclusive), 

 in which are set forth my peculiar views of the qualities of our soils, the 

 general absence and want of calcareous earth, the mode of action of cal- 

 careous manures, and, in general, the theory of fertilization, the entire 

 matter of the edition of 1882 has been scrupulously retained, without altera- 

 tion, other than in a few transpositions of matter and merely verbal cor- 

 rections, which have not at all altered the purport. Whatever else has 

 been added, in later editions and the present, whether to the text or as 

 notes, will be designated by being enclosed in brackets, and will also, in 

 most cases, be marked with the date of the edition, or the writing, in which 

 such additional passages first appeared. 1852.] 



