190 VALUE OF SANDY SOILS. 



may be useful to offer some evidence in support of the great value 

 to which sandy soils may arrive. 



We are so accustomed to find sandy soils poor, that it is difficult 

 for us to connect with them the idea of fertility, and still less of 

 durability. Yet British agriculturists, who were acquainted with 

 clays and clay loams of as great value, and as well managed under 

 tillage, as any in the world, speak in still higher terms of certain 

 soils which are even more sandy than most of ours. For example 

 " Rich sandy soils, however," says Sir John Sinclair, " such as 

 those of Frodsham in Cheshire, are invaluable. They are cultivated 

 at a moderate expense ; and at all times have a dry soundness, 

 accompanied by moisture, which secures exellent crops, even in the 

 driest summers."* Robert Brown (one of the very few who have 

 deserved the character of being both able writers and successful 

 practical cultivators) says " Perhaps a true sandy loam, incumbent 

 on a sound sub-soil, is the most valuable of all soils. "~\ Arthur 

 Young, when describing the soils of France, in his agricultural 

 survey of that country, in several places speaks in the highest 

 terms of different bodies of light or sandy soils, of which the 

 following example, of the extensive district which he calls the plain 

 of the Garonne, will be enough to quote : " It is entered about 

 Creisensac, and improves all the way to Montauban and Toulouse, 

 where it is one of the finest bodies of fertile soil that can anywhere 



be seen." " Through all this plain, wherever the soil is found 



excellent, it consists usually of a deep mellow friable sandy loam, 

 with moisture sufficient for anything ; much of it is calcareous. "j; 

 The soil of Belgium, so celebrated for its high improvement and 

 remarkable productiveness, is mostly sandy. The author last 

 quoted, in another work describes a body of land in the county of 

 Norfolk, as "one of the finest tracts that is anywhere to be 



seen" "a fine, deep, mellow, putrid sandy loam, adhesive 



enough to fear no drought, and friable enough to strain off super- 

 fluous moisture, so that all seasons suit it; from texture free to 

 work, and from chemical qualities sure to produce in luxuriance 

 whatever the industry of man commits to its friendly bosom. " 

 Mr. Coke, the great Norfolk farmer, made on the average 24 bushels 

 of wheat to the acre, on an estate of as sandy soil as our South- 

 ampton (where probably a general average of two bushels could 

 not be obtained, if general wheat culture were attempted) and 

 many other farms in Norfolk yielded much better wheat than Mr. 

 Coke's in 1804, when Young's survey was jnade. Several farms 



* Code of Agriculture, p. 12. 



f Bro\vn's Treatise on Agriculture, p. 218, of " Agriculture" in Edin. 

 Ency. 



J Young's Tour in France. 



fy Young's Survey of Norfolk, p. 4. 



