BY MINERAL MANURES. 91 



tions, is to experiment with them, upon a limited scale, 

 upon our own ground. Although lime effects wonders 

 in some districts, and upon some farms, yet in other ca- 

 ses it does no good. This difference is sometimes found 

 to exist upon the same farm, — one portion becoming 

 highly benefited by lime, and another portion not at all 

 affected by its application. General prescriptions can 

 with no more propriety be applied to bad soils, than they 

 can be to the bad health of animals. What would cure 

 the animal in one case might kill in another ; and what 

 benefits one soil in one case, might be inoperative or 

 prejudicial in another. 



The admixture of earths., to improve the mechanical 

 texture of soils, — as sands with clays, and clays with 

 sands, — is often made with advantage ; and we are per- 

 suaded may be profitably carried to a greater extent, 

 when the difierent kinds are found contiguous to each 

 other. We have seen that sand, clay, hme, and organic 

 matters are all useful constituents in a fertile soil. When 

 one of them is deficient, it may often be supplied without 

 much expense, and a permanent improvement effected 

 thereby. It is on this principle that we apply lime, 

 marl, and manures. The soil being deficient in these, 

 or any one of them, by supplying the deficiency, we re- 

 store it to its pristine condition, and sometimes increase 

 its prolific powers. And we are often able to render 

 peaty lands productive, after they have been drained, by 

 blending sand, clay, or loam, or lime, with the vegetable 

 matters with which they abound. 



From the facts given in this and the preceding chap- 

 ter, it will be apparent, that we lack not the means of 

 feeding our farm-crops, and of thereby increasing our 

 farm-products : we lack only the intelligence and indus- 

 try which are necessary to render the means efficient. 

 Most of our old-settled districts are employing one or 

 more of these means to renovate the fertility of the soil ; 

 but it is doubtful whether any are employing all which 

 are at their command to effect this object. The east 

 are depending principally upon the resources of their 

 cattle-yard, wherever they have become sensible of the 



