THE PROPERTIES OF SOIL 25 



much cohesiveness that it can be moulded 

 into any shape that we may desire. As so 

 often happens, the best conditions, from 

 the agricultural point of view, are not to 

 be met with at either extreme, in fact a 

 soil with little or no cohesiveness is almost 

 as profitless a subject as one of the con- 

 sistency of Gault Clay. When a soil possess- 

 ing too little cohesiveness is taken in hand 

 for purposes of cultivation, the first step 

 taken by the farmer or gardener is to introduce 

 something into the soil that will give it 

 " body," and assist in keeping the particles 

 together. Sandy soil can be improved by the 

 addition of clay, and at one time the operation 

 of " claying " land, in other words the ad- 

 mixture of fifty loads or more per acre of clay 

 with the surface soil, was not an uncommon 

 ameliorative process. But such an operation 

 involved more outlay for labour than is 

 justifiable under present conditions, so that, 

 except under very exceptional circumstances, 

 one does not now find that sandy soil is being 

 treated in this way. But what farmers and 

 gardeners are thoroughly alive to, is the 

 necessity of taking steps to increase the 

 percentage of humus, that is to say, decom- 

 posing vegetable material, as represented by 

 farmyard manure, decomposing turf, leaf 



