40 EARTHS AND SOILS. 



\y poor and unproductive ; yet there is perhaps not now 

 a district in Europe that makes a better return for agri- 

 cultural labor. Where sands contain carbonate of lime, 

 and are kept in good condition, they yield wheat, barley, 

 and other farm-crops, besides those first enumerated, and 

 become converted ultimately into a species of light loam. 



The celebrated Mr. Ducket, of England, founded his 

 practice in managing sandy soils on three principles : 1. 

 He ploughed very deep ; a due degree of moisture was 

 thus preserved in his light land, by means of which his 

 crops escaped the evils of drought, while his neighbors' 

 crops suffered severely. 2. He ploughed seldom, but 

 effectually, covering all the weeds. He sometimes raised 

 seven crops with four ploughings. One good ploughing 

 will always suffice to prepare sandy ground for a crop ; 

 and a second ploughing is injurious, if it turns up the sod 

 or other vegetable matters to the surface. The cultivator 

 will frequently supersede the use of the plough, in the 

 preparation for a crop. It is a good practice to sow clo- 

 ver or grass seeds with all small grains, or broad-cast 

 crops, upon sands, to improve the texture, and to impart 

 fertility to the soil. The benefits will greatly overbal- 

 ance the expense. 



The Flemings have converted some districts, which 

 were originally a barren white sand, into a most fertile 

 loam. They cultivated at first only to the depth of three 

 or four inches ; but gradually went deeper as the soil be- 

 came enriched, until they had got a very deep soil — and 

 now the ground, says Sinclair, at the commencement of 

 every rotation, is trenched by a shovel (the soil being very 

 loose) to the depth of fifteen or eighteen inches; the ex- 

 hausted surface is buried, and the fresh surface brought 

 up, enriched by the manure washed down to it during the 

 preceding seven years. 



The generic name of a soil is determined by the earth 

 which prevails in it ; as clayey, sandy, calcareous, &c. 

 Where two prevail to all appearance equally, then their 

 names may be conjoined, as clay and sand, lime and clay, 

 &c. The term sandy, according to Davy, should not be 

 applied to a soil which does not contain seven eighths of 



