SHALLOW AND POOR SOILS. 191 



averaged 86 bushels, and one of 40 is stated } and the general ave- 

 rage of the county was 24 bushels.* Yet the county of Norfolk was 

 formerly pronounced by Charles II. to be only fit " to cut up into 

 strips, to make roads of for the remainder of the kingdom" and 

 that sportive description expressed strongly the sandy nature of the 

 soil, as well as its then state of poverty and utter worthlessness. 



Because certain qualities of poor clay soils (particularly their 

 absorbent power) make them better than poor sands for producing 

 wheat, we most strangely attach a value to the stiffness and in- 

 tractability of the former. Yet if all the absorbent quality and 

 productive power of clay could be given to sand, surely the latfer 

 would be the more valuable in proportion to its being friable and 

 easy to cultivate. The causes of all the valuable qualities and pro- 

 ductive power of the rich sands that have been referred to, are 

 only calcareous and putrescent manures, and depth of soil ; and if 

 the same means can be used, our now poor sands may also be made 

 as productive and valuable. I do not mean to assert that the most 

 highly improved sandy soils can produce as much wheat as the best 

 clay soils ; but they will not fall so far short as to prevent their 

 being the more valuable lands, for wheat as well as other crops, on 

 account of their being more easily cultivated, and less liable to suffer 

 from bad seasons, or bad management. 



The greatest objection to the poor sandy lands of lower Virginia, as 

 subjects for improvement by calcareous manures, is not their excess 

 of sand, nor yet their poverty great as may be both these dis- 

 advantages but it is the sliallowness of the poor and sandy soil. 

 The natural soil of a large portion of these lands, before cultivation, 

 is not more than from one to two inches deep, lying on a barren 

 sub-soil of sand. Now suppose this very shallow soil to be doubled 

 or even tripled in fertility by marling, or a productive power of 6 

 or 9 bushels of corn be raised to 18 bushels, still it would be but 

 mean land. And a long succession of annual vegetable covers to 

 be left on the land, or a great quantity of prepared putrescent 

 manure furnished at once, would be required to make such soil both 

 rich and deep. If the original soil had been ten inches deep, the 

 fertility before marling might have been but little more than on the 

 shallowest soil. But heavy marling and deep and good tillage 

 would have served speedily to make a rich and productive soil, 

 approaching in value to those rich sands of Europe mentioned 

 above. 



Another large class of the poor lands of lower Virginia are the 

 close stiff clays, of which the soil is still more shallow than the 

 sands. Such land was described at page 124 and formed the sub- 

 jects of experiments 5, 6, and 7. This is the very worst soil known 



* Young's Survey of Norfolk, p. 300 to 804. 



