48 EARTHS AND SOILS. 



peaty grounds, are oats, potatoes, rye, turnips, carrots, 

 and Indian corn ; clover, timothy, red-top, and other 

 grasses. When properly drained and subdued, hay crops 

 make good returns on peaty lands. By suflering the sec- 

 ond crop of grass to rot upon the ground, instead of 

 feeding it off as is usual, the Flemings have experienced 

 an immense increase of hay the ensuing year, and in this 

 way their fenny grounds are converted into permanent 

 meadow. The application of gypsum would, no doubt, 

 with us, in the interior, tend further to increase the crop, 

 and perpetuate fertility. 



If the surface consist of bogs and other living vegeta- 

 ble matters, as roots, it must either be burnt or carried 

 off. The ashes are useful if spread upon the surface, 

 and they may also be applied to uplands with great advan- 

 tage. Peat earth may be also extensively and profitably 

 used for uplands, after it has lain for a season in the cat- 

 tle or hog-yard, and been subjected to the tread, and be- 

 come mingled with the urine and other excrementitious 

 matters of the yard ; or after it has been mingled in com- 

 post with lime, ashes, or unfermented stable manure, till 

 the process of decomposition or fermentation has com- 

 menced. 



6. Alluvial soils are, first, those which have been 

 formed by the action of the sea, which are composed 

 principally of sand, with but little of organic matter 

 except marine shells, such as the great level sandy dis- 

 tricts lying along the border of the Atlantic; and secondly, 

 those which have been formed from the deposits of riv- 

 ers, as upon the Mississippi, the Ohio, and most of the 

 secondary and minor streams of our country. The com- 

 position of the latter depends upon the geological forma- 

 tion of the country from which the deposits are brought ; 

 and the degree of fertility, somewhat upon the force of 

 the current by which they have been deposited, — the 

 coarser matters only being left where the stream is rapid, 

 and the finer and richer materials, being specifically light- 

 er, subsiding only where the waters become tranquil. 

 Hence alluvial soils are various in their character and 

 productiveness. Those of the first class are generally 



