BARREN LAND. 



moisture essential to vegetation can- 

 not be retained, or that the fibres of 

 the roots cannot penetrate in search 

 of food. The first is the case in loose 

 silicious sands, the second in rociis 

 and indurated clays. It is seldom 

 that either of these soils can be ren- 

 dered productive, so as to repay the 

 expense of cultivation, unless under 

 particular circumstances. The most 

 barren sands will become productive 

 by irrigation, and in that case the la- 

 bour applied to improve their texture, 

 by the admixture of more tenacious 

 earth, may be occasionally repaid. 

 The vine may be made to grow in the 

 fissures of the hardest rocks, where 

 the climate is favourable ; and ter- 

 races may be formed, by which the 

 soil brought on may be retained ; but, 

 in general, loose sands and rocks ought 

 to be left to their natural state of bar- 

 renness. 



We shall endeavour to give, as 

 briefly as possible, an outline of the 

 various means by which even the 

 poorest soils may be rendered capa- 

 ble of adding something to the gen- 

 eral stock of food. The question as 

 to the policy of cultivating such lands 

 is not here considered. Our object 

 is to show how barren lands may be 

 improved whenever such improve- 

 ment may be deemed expedient. 



Some lands are barren in conse- 

 quence of noxious ingredients in the 

 soil, whicii, by their chemical action 

 on the food of plants, or on their mi- 

 nute fibres, prevent their growth and 

 render them sickly and abortive. 

 These, having been ascertained by 

 careful analysis, must be deprived of 

 their noxious qualities by chemical 

 means, one of tlie most obvious of 

 which is liming. Nature has supplied 

 a general and complete antidote to 

 acid combinations, in lime, one of the 

 most abundant mineral productions. 

 There are few bad soils which lime 

 will not improve. The most com- 

 mon substances found in barren soils 

 are ditTerent combinations of metals, 

 principally iron, with sulphur and 

 acids ; quicklime either decomposes 

 all these or renders them innocuous. 

 Another substance is tannin, or the 



astringent principle, which is of vege- 

 table origin, and, by preventing tiie 

 solubility of vegetable fibres, trans- 

 forms them into an inflammable sub- 

 stance well known by the name of 

 peat or moss. This, likewise, is 

 readily corrected by the same means. 

 But the different substances of which 

 a soil is composed may be perfectly 

 innocuous to vegetation, and yet the 

 barrenness may not be the less, if the 

 supply or circulation of moisture be 

 deficient or excessive. This must, 

 therefore, be the first consideration, 

 before any improvement is attempt- 

 ed ; and if sufficient moisture cannot 

 be supplied, or superfluous removed, 

 all other attempts will only be lost 

 labour. In tropical climates, irriga- 

 tion is the chief source of fertility ; 

 and the most expensive works have 

 been constructed, both in ancient and 

 modern times, to supply the land with 

 water as occasion requires. In nortii- 

 ern and moister climates, the founda- 

 tion of all improvements in the soil is 

 a proper outlet to superfluous water. 

 These two subjects will be treated 

 in the articles Irrigation and Drain- 

 ing. 



Supposing, then, that the moisture 

 has been regulated, and that the land 

 is to be brought into cultivation, the 

 first thing to be done is to remove ob 

 structions and impediments, whether 

 they be rocks, stones, trees, or shrubs, 

 or only the heath and coarse grasses 

 which generally cover waste lauds. 

 Rocks may be quarried or blown, and 

 so may stones too large to be remo- 

 ved whole, and the fragments will 

 often be useful in building the neces- 

 sary farm offices, or making fences to 

 divide the land into fields of conve- 

 nient dimensions, and especially to 

 keep off animals from destroying the 

 crops. A simple method of getting 

 rid of large stones is to dig a deep 

 hole by the side of them, as near as 

 possible, and roll them in, so that 

 they may be buried at least two feet 

 below the surface. If the nature of 

 the stones is lamellated, and they 

 will split, wedges of iron driven into 

 holes made in the direction of the 

 layers readily divide them into flat 



71 



