92 IMPROVEMEET OF THE SOIL 



importance and practicability of improvement. Upon 

 Long Island, fish, drawn ashes, and street manure, with 

 clover, and alternation of crops, are relied upon as sour- 

 ces of fertility and profit. In the valley of the Hudson, 

 clover, gypsum, and alternation of crops, and mixed hus- 

 bandry, have done much towards improvement, and are 

 likely to do much more. In New Jersey, the green 

 sand is working miracles, and stimulating the farmers to 

 new exertions in improvement. In Eastern Pennsylvania, 

 lime and plaster have done much. In Maiy^land and 

 Virginia, marl is the efficient agent of improvement, near 

 tide-water, and clover and gypsum in the interior. And 

 as to the south and west, they either do not seem to know 

 that land can wear out, or, reckless of the future, they 

 seem determined to kill the goose which lays the golden 

 egg. With, to be sure, many highly creditable excep- 

 tions, the tendency of the system of husbandry at present 

 pursued in the new south and west, is to wear out the 

 soil, as it has been worn out, in many cases, on the east 

 ern borders of our country. 



Having shown, in the last chapter, that manures are 

 indispensable to good husbandry — that they constitute 

 the food of plants, and tend to ameliorate and fit the soil 

 for the performance of its important offices ; — and having 

 noticed those manures which are most available to the 

 farmer, and indicated the mode of profitably applying 

 them — we proceed now to the next stage of improvement. 



CHAPTER XI. 



IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL BY DRAINING. 



Few improvements, of modern introduction, promise 

 greater benefits to husbandry than thorough draining. 

 Whatever be the earthy constituents of the soil, or 

 whatever its richness in organic matters, no northern cul- 

 tivated crop will grow and produce well on lands that are 

 habitually wet. 



