12 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



tural soil only that the farmer ought to consider, but the depth 

 of it, and what lies immediately underneath it. For if the 

 richest soil is only seven or eight inches deep, and lies on a 

 cold wet clay or stone, it will not be so fruitful as leaner soils 

 that lie on a better under stratum. Gravel is, perhaps, the 

 best under stratum to make the land prolific. 



The best loams and natural earths are of a bright browTi, or 

 hazel color. Hence, they are called hazel loams. They 

 cut smooth and tolerably easy, without clinging to the spade 

 or ploughshare ; are light, friable, and fall into small clods 

 without chapping or cracking in dry weather, or turning 

 into mortar when wet. Dark gray and russet moulds are 

 accounted the next best. The worst of all, are the light and 

 dark ash colored. The goodness of land may also be very 

 well judged of by the smell and the touch. The best emits 

 a fresh pleasant scent on being dug or ploughed up, espe- 

 cially after rain; and being a just proportion of sand and 

 clay intimately blended, will not stick much to the fingers on 

 handling. But all soils, however good, may be impoverish- 

 ed, and even worn out, by successive crops without rest, espe- 

 cially if the ploughings are not very frequently repeated 

 before the seed is sown. 



If we examine tracts of land which have not been culti- 

 vated, we find nature has adapted different kinds of plants to 

 most of the distinguishable varieties of soils; and though 

 some belonging to one may for some cause or other be found 

 on lands of a different quality, they seldom thrive, or perfect 

 their seeds so as to become general. The great care of the 

 farmer ought, therefore, to be, by proper mixtures, to reduce 

 his land to that state and temperament in which the extremes 

 of hot and cold, wet and dry, are best corrected by each other ; 

 to give them every possible advantage flowing from the be- 

 nign influences of sun and air ; and to adopt such kinds of 

 plants as they afford in this state the greatest nourishment 

 to ; and to renew their fertility by a judicious allowance of 

 the most proper manures. Where these things are done, there 

 are few spots so unfriendly to cultivation as not to repay his 

 expenses and labor with a plentiful increase. But without 

 these, the best tracts of land will in time become a barren 

 waste, or produce little but woods. 



The color of soils is important. The Farmer's Journal 

 observes, coal ashes were sprinkled over half the surface of 

 beds, sown with peas, beans, &c., and on these the plants 

 invariably appeared above ground two or three days earlier, 



