774 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



4747. A gravelly soii, free from stagnant water, gives such an additional warmth to the climate, that 

 vegetation is nearly a fortnight earlier than where other soils predominate. About Dartford and Black, 

 heath, in Kent, such soils produce early green peas, winter tares, rye, autumnal peas, and occasionally 

 wheat, in great perfection. 



4748. Gravelly soils, iu a wet climate, answer well for potatoes ; in Cornwall, in a sheltered situation, 

 with a command of sea-sand, and of sea- weed, they raise two crops of potatoes in the same year. 



4749. Poor gravelly soils full of springs, and those sulphureous, are very unfriendly to vegetation j and 

 are better calculated for wood than for arable culture. 



4750. The stony, shnley, w stone-brash soils of Gloucestershire, and the midland counties of England, 

 are much mixed with small stones, but have more frequently sand, or clay, or cali.-areous loam, in their 

 composition than gravelly soils, and are therefore generally preferable. 



4751. A clayey soil is often of so adhesive a nature that it wiU hold water like a dish. In a dry summer, 

 the plough turns it up in great clods, scarcely to be broken or separated by the heaviest roller. It requires, 

 therefore, much labour to put it in a state fit for producing either corn or grass, and it can only be culti- 

 vated when in a particular state, and in favourable weather. Though it will yield great crops under a 

 proper system of management, yet, being cultivated at a heavy expense, requiring stronger instruments 

 and stouter horses, it is seldom that much profit is obtained, unless when occupied by a judicious and 

 attentive farmer. The best management of clay soils is that of the Lothians. There they are found 

 well calculated for growing crops of beans, wheat, oats, clover, and winter tares : but are not adapted for 

 barley, unless immediately after a fallow; nor for potatoes, unless under very peculiar management. In 

 regard to turnips, they do not usually thrive so well in clays, as in soils which are more free and open : 

 but it is now ascertained, that the Swedish, and above all the yellow, turnip may be raised in them with 

 advatitage ; that the quality is superior ; that if they are taken up early, the soil is not injured ; and that 

 there is no difficulty in preserving them. Clays become good meadow-lands, and answer well for hay, or 

 soiling, when in grass ; but from their aptitude to be poached, they are, in general, unfit to be fed by 

 heavy cattle in wet weather. In dry seasons the after-grass may be used to feed neat cattle till October, 

 and sheep till March. A stiff clay, when not cold or wet, with a strong marl under it, is preferred in 

 Cheshire and Derbyshire for the dairy. 



4752. On reclaimed peat-bo"S, oats, rye, beans, potatoes, turnips, carrots, cole-seed, and white and red 

 clover, may be cultivated. Wheat and barley have succeeded on such lands, after they have been supplied 

 with abundance of calcareous earth ; and the florin grass (^gn'istis stolonifera) seems likewise to be well 

 adapted to that description of soil in a warm climate. In Leicestershire, and other counties, they have 

 great tracts of meadow-land ; these are, in many instances, the sites of lakes filled up, and the soil is com- 

 posed of peat and sediment; the peat originally formed by aquatic vegetation, and the sediment brought 

 down by rains and streams from the upland. This soil is admirably calculated for grass. 



4753. The fens in Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and several other districts in England, consist of peat 

 and sediment. 



4754. Chalky soils principally consist of calcareous matter mixed with various substances, in greater or 

 less proportions. Where clayey or earthy substances are to be found in such soils in considerable quanti- 

 ties, the composition is heavy and productive ; where sand or gravel abounds, it is slight, and rather 

 unfertile. The crops chiefly cultivated on chalky soils are peas, turnips, barley, clover, and wheat ; and, 

 liowever much the soil is exhausted, it will produce saintfoin. 



4755. Chalky soils are in general Jitter fur tillage than for grazing j for, without the plough, the pecu- 

 liar advantages derived from this soil by saintfoin could not be obtained. The plough, however, ought not 

 to extend to those flne chalky downs ("called ewe leases in Dorsetshire), which, by a very attentive man- 

 agement during a number of years, have been brought to a considerable degree of fertility as grazing land, 

 and which are so useful to sheep in the winter season. A chalky soil that has been in tillage permits 

 water to pass through it so freely in winter, and is so pervious to the sun's rays in summer, that it is the 

 work of an age to make it a good pasture of natural grasses, more especially when the challi lies near the 

 surface. Hence, in the western counties of England, several thousands of acres of this soil, though not 

 ploughed for thirty years, have scarcely any grass of tolerable quality upon them, and are literally worth 

 nothing. Such soils ought to be laid dawn with saintfoin. 



4756. Alluvial soils are of two sorts ; one derived from the sediment of fresh, and the other from that 

 of salt water. Along the sides of rivers, and other considerable streams, water-formed soils are to be met 

 with, consisting of the decomposed matter of decayed vegetables, with the sediment of streams. They 

 are in general deep and fertile, and not apt to be'injured by rain, as they usually lie on a bed of open 

 gravel. They are commonly employed as meadows, from the hazard of crops of grain being injured or 

 carried offby floods. 



4757. Alluvial soils, arising from the operations of salt water, called salt marshes in England, carses in 

 Scotland, and polders in Holland and Inlanders, are composed of the finest parts of natural clay, washed 

 ofl" by running water, and deposited on flat ground, on the shores of estuaries, where they are formed by 

 the reflux of the tide, and enriched with marine productions. They generally have a rich level surface, 

 and being deep in the staple, they are well adapted for the culture of the most valuable crops. Hence 

 wheat, barley, oats, and clover are all of them productive on this species of soil ; which is likewise pecu- 

 liarly well calculated for beans, as the tap root pushes vigorously tlirough it, and finds its nourishment at 

 a great depth. From the great mass of excellent soil, the fertility of these tracts is nearly inexhaustible j 

 but, from their low and damp situations, they are not easily managed. Lime, in considerable quantities, 

 is found to answer well upon this species of soil. 



4758. The term loamy soil is applied to such as are moderately cohesive, less tenacious than clay, and 

 more so than sand. Loams are the most desirable of all soils to occupy. They are friable ; can in general 

 be cultivated at almost any season of the year ; are ploughed with greater facility, and less strength than 

 clay ; bear better the vicissitudes of the seasons ; and seldom require any change in the rotation adoptetl. 

 Above all, they are peculiarly well adapted for the convertible husbandry ; for they can be changed, not 

 only without injury, but generally with benefit, from grass to tillage, and from tillage to grass. 



4759. As to the comparative value of soil) it has been justly remarked, that too much 

 can hardly be paid for a good soil, and that even a low rent will not make a poor one 

 profitable. The labour of cultivating a rich and a poor soil is nearly the same ; while 

 the latter requires more manure, and consequently is more expensive. Poor soils, at the 

 same time, may have such a command of lasting manures, as lime or marl, or even of 

 temporary sorts, like sea-weed, or the refuse of fish, as may render them profitable to 

 cultivate. It is a wise maxim in husbandry, that the soil, like the cattle by which it is 

 cultivated, should always be kept up in good condition, and never suffered to fall below 

 the work it may be expected to perform. 



Sect. III. Subsoil relatively to the Choice of a Farm. 



4760. On the nature of the understratum depends much of the value of the surface 

 soil. On various accounts its properties merit particular attention. By examining the 



