CHAPTER VII. 



PHYSICALLY PERFECT SOILS STRONG AND LIGHT SOILS HOW 



TO AMEND CLAYEY LAND CLAY BURNING TREATMENT 



OF SANDY SOILS GREEN CROPS AS MANURE REMARKS 



ON DISINTEGRATION " FAIRY RINGS " THEIR EXIS- 

 TENCE EXPLAINED HOW TO KEEP PACE WITH THE TIMES. 



The most favorable physical conditions of a fertile soil are found 

 to exist in a nearly equal mixture of sand and clay. When it con- 

 tains less than thirty per cent., or about one-third of sand, it should 

 cease to be classed among those fit for agricultural purposes, and, 

 according to its composition, be turned to account in other directions. 

 The two substances clay and sand are destined by nature to play 

 respective parts, which may be thus described : the clay to store up 

 and hold together those substances essential for plant food ; the sand 

 to serve as a ventilator or conductor of air and water. 



As the defects of physically well-constituted lands may be easily 

 discovered and dealt with by chemical analysis, our present pur- 

 pose will be served if we devote our attention to those of a less 

 happy nature, which, for convenience, we shall distinguish as strong 

 or clayey, and light or sandy soils ; the former being heavy, tena- 

 cious, plastic, and retentive of moisture ; the latter porous and 

 incapable of holding water. It not unfrequently happens that in 

 some regions both these qualities are alternately met with in consid- 

 erable abundance, extending over very large areas ; and in such 

 cases a judicious mixture is the natural remedy which suggests it- 

 self. In other regions we meet with vast tracts of land wholly 



