48 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



the language of Chaptal, good soils " have a constant 

 tendency to become pulverized, and at length, bj' 

 frequent tilling, by the action of salts, manures, and 

 frosts, they are reduced to so fine a powder as to 

 cease to be productive. Rain falling upon ground 

 in this impalpable state renders it perfect mud, 

 which, when exposed to heat, becomes so hard that 

 the air cannot penetrate it, nor the tender fibres of 

 plants force their wayinto it ;" and Davy has ob- 

 served, that all soils composed of nineteen twenti- 

 eths of impalpable matter are completely barren. 

 Barnyard manure will correct this state of things 

 only for a short time ; the complete remedy is the 

 application of sand and gravel, which restores it to 

 fertility. * 



Soils are the most liable to become dry and hard 

 in which alumina predominates ; and as a consider- 

 able part of Western New- York is based on clay 

 slate, which, when uncovered to the air, and exposed 

 to the action of rain and frost, speedily falls to pow- 

 der, of which the base is alumina, there is a con- 

 tinual tendency in such soils to decrease in fertility, 

 a tendency which the application of manure alone is 

 not able to counteract. Here the remedy is plain, 

 and the addition of a proper quantity of sand would 

 be an effectual barrier to consolidation. It is on ac- 

 count of this tendency in aluminous soils to consol- 

 idate that we so frequently hear farmers who culti- 

 vate lands inclining to clay, complain that their 

 wheat freezes out much more than it formerly did. 

 Lands in which silicious or calcareous matter 

 abounds rarely suffer in this way ; as, where these 

 substances exist, sand and gravel are in sufficient 

 quantities to prevent consolidation. If such soils 

 suffer, it is from the want of alumina, which leaves 

 them too porous to retain moisture or to receive the 

 full benefit of manures. 



Where earth is composed of clay and fine sand, if 

 the former amounts to one half or more, it is fit for 



