EARTHS AND SOILS. 39 



— as food, after undergoing the digestive process in the 

 animal stomach, is taken up by the lacteals. In the ani- 

 mal, the food, after undergoing various changes, is con- 

 verted into flesh, bone, sinew, milk, wool, &c. In the 

 vegetable, the food, in like manner, is converted into 

 stem, foliage, blossoms, and fruit, grain, or roots. Both 

 the animal and the plant exhaust the food which nourishes 

 them ; and if we would keep the animal fat, or the soil 

 fertile, we must continue to replenish the food. 



We have introduced this comparison here, in order to 

 impress more fully upon the minds of our young readers, 

 the importance and the means of feeding their crops. 



Soils are variously classed by different writers. Von 

 Thaer and Fellenburgh have enumerated more than eighty 

 varieties. Sinclair has divided them into sand, gravel, 

 clay, chalk or lime, peat, alluvial, and loam. We shall 

 adopt the latter classification, and consider each separ- 

 ately. 



1. Sandy soils are those where sand most predomi- 

 nates. They are loose, easily worked, but are not re- 

 tentive of manure or moisture, owing to their porous 

 texture. They are best adapted to tap-rooted plants, as 

 carrots, turnips, clover, lucerne, to Indian corn, and alter- 

 nating husbandry. They comprise a great portion of the 

 lands upon the Atlantic border, from New York to the 

 Capes of Florida, and most of the pine lands of the inte- 

 rior. Their mechanical texture is improved by marl, and 

 by an admixture of clay, which often underlay them, or 

 abound in their vicinity. If the silex does not exceed 

 60 to 65 percent., they are as profitably managed, under 

 good husbandry, as most other lands. Under the old 

 exhausting system they soon become worthless. If not 

 too flat and wet, sandy soils are well adapted for sheep, 

 which assist much to keep up and to increase their fertility. 

 The county of Norfolk, in England, is principally a sandy 

 soil. Sixty years ago it gave but a very lean product ; 

 but under the alternating system of husbandry, including 

 the turnip culture, it has become the most productive and 

 profitable county for agricultural products in England. 

 Flanders is mostly sand, and a portion of it was original- 



