14 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



immense quantities of vegetable matter in different stages 

 of decomposition, and suitable to apply to any kind of soil. 



* Where streams of water occasionally overflow the banks, 

 an abundance of vegetable and earthy matter is lodg-ed on 

 the meadows, which in many cases, especially where there 

 is not much extent of meadow to receive the substances con- 

 veyed by the stream, it is prudent to remove on to higher 

 land. It will there act as manure, and at the same time 

 gradually alter the texture of the soil, rendering it more re- 

 tentive of dew and rain, and easily penetrated by the fibrous 

 roots of plants. Of the value of those substances which are 

 carried in streams of water to enrich soils, we have the most 

 convincing proof in the unexampled productiveness of interval 

 lands. It is not exclusively the vegetable substances carried 

 on to these lands which make them so astonishingly pro- 

 ductive ; there is a portion of every kind of soil existing in 

 the surrounding country annually carried on with the vege- 

 table substances. Intervals are composed of every sort of 

 earth the water can reach and remove. This circumstance 

 may properly encourage the mixtures of many kinds of earth, 

 even when there is no particular evidence that each kind is 

 especially adapted to remedy any deficiency in the soil 

 which we would improve. Thei-e is less hazard in adminis- 

 tering medicines in great profusion to cure diseases in the 

 soil, than in the human body. In stepping out of the beaten 

 path of habitual practice, and calling attention to experi- 

 ments, which to some may Jook very simple, and to others 

 very absurd, we may become instrumental in the discovery of 

 highly important truths.' 



It will not do however to spread pond mud directly on 

 grass land or on arable ground. An (experienced farmer in- 

 forms us that he once injured a piece of grass land by spread- 

 ing pond mud upon it without preparation. It should be 

 mixed with lime and warmer manure, and exposed to the at- 

 mosphere, or put into the barn-yard to be trodden upon by 

 cattle. 



Arthur Young lays it down as a maxim, that a strong, 

 harsh, tenacious claj'-, though it will yield great crops of 

 wheat, is yet managed at so heavy expense, that it is usually 

 let for more than it is worth. Much money is not made on 

 such land. The very contrary soil, a light, poor, dry sand, 

 is very often, indeed, in the occupation of men who have 

 made fortunes. Some permanent manure is usually below 

 the surface, which answers well to carry on ; and sheep, the 



