CLAY SOILS. 



fore. The dryest clay contains suf- 

 ficient water to supply the roots of 

 plants for a long tunc ; hut wet clay, 

 in drying and shrudcing, destroys the 

 texture of the roots i)y mechanical 

 pressure. This may he of use when 

 weeds are to be eradicated, and in 

 that case a different mode of proceed- 

 ing may he recommended ; but when 

 good seed is sown the clay should be 

 in such a state as to crumble under 

 the harrows. Experience has taught 

 the plouglunan that clay soils should 

 be laid m round lands or stitches ; 

 and much of the produce of a held 

 depends on the skill with which this 

 is done. It is not only the surface 

 which should lie in a rounded form, 

 but the bottoms of the furrows should 

 lie in a regular curve, without small 

 ridges or inequalities between them, 

 so that, when heavy rains penetrate 

 through the whole thickness which 

 the plough has raised, the water may 

 find its way into the intervening fur- 

 rows without being retained by the 

 small ridges left by an unskilful 

 ploughman. The slightest inclina- 

 tion of the plough to either side 

 makes an inclination in the bottom 

 of the furrow. An inequality in the 

 depth does the same. The usual 

 method is to increase the depth of 

 the ploughing from the crown of the 

 stitch to the outer furrow. If the 

 land has been cross-ploughed or drag- 

 ged level before the last ploughing, 

 this may answer the purpose ; but if 

 the stitches are only reversed, and 

 the centre of ttie new stitch is to be 

 where the water-furrow was before, 

 it requires twice ploughing to bring 

 the stitch to its proper lorni ; and this 

 is not always done, for fear of tread- 

 ing the land too much. Hence it is 

 always preferable, where it can be 

 done, to lay the land flat by cross- 

 ploughing and harrowing before it is 

 raised m stitches. The narrower the 

 stitches are the dryer the land will 

 lie. The most convenient width is 

 five bouts, as it is called, that is, five 

 furrows on each side of the centre, 

 which, allowing nine inches for each 

 furrow, makes seven and a half feet, 

 leaving eighteen inches for a water 

 162 



furrow, which is deepened into a nar- 

 row channel in the middle. 



\\'e have been thus particular in 

 describing the management of clay 

 land, because it seems not so gener- 

 ally understood, and there is great 

 room for improvement in the com- 

 mon modes of cultivation. Fallow- 

 ing for wheat is the old system on 

 clay soils, and continues to be so in 

 nine farms out of ten ; but it often 

 happens that, in a wet season, the 

 whole advantage of the repeated 

 ploughings is entirely lost : the land 

 sown with wheat is neither enriched 

 nor improved by all the tillage be- 

 stowed upon it, and it is as full of 

 weeds as it was when first broken up 

 from the preceding stubble. The bet- 

 ter system is to clean the land well 

 in summer, after it has borne a crop, 

 and to lay it up high and dry for the 

 winter, having given it the proper li- 

 ming ; to sow it with oats and grass 

 seeds in spring, keep it in grass as 

 long as is convenient, and break it 

 up in autumn. Wheat may then be 

 sown ; or it may have the benefit of 

 another winter's frost, and corn may 

 be drilled in spring. Clay land will 

 bear a repetition of the same crops 

 much oftener than lighter lands ; but 

 every scientific agriculturist knows 

 the advantage of varying the produce 

 as much as possible, making plants 

 of different families succeed each 

 other. The cereal grasses are of 

 one family, which is the reason why 

 wheat, barley, oats, rye grass, &c., do 

 not succeed so well after each other 

 as after leguminous plants or clover, 

 and that turnips, besides cleaning the 

 land by the repeated hoeings given 

 them, are so good a preparation for 

 corn. A good rotation for stiff clays 

 is yet a desideratum in agriculture ; 

 and although we will not affirm that 

 fallows can be entirely dispensed 

 with, we are persuaded that they 

 might be separated by much larger 

 intervals than is usually done ; and 

 if advantage is taken of early sea- 

 sons, most lands may be kept clean 

 by what is called a bastard fallow 

 immediately after harvest, without 

 losing a crop. We will go farther, 



