42 THE FIRST BOOK OF FARMING 



is lost. Very likely it carries with it some of the 

 surface soil which it has soaked and loosened, and 

 thus leaves the farm washed and gullied. 



What can we do for our clay soils to help them 

 to absorb the rain more rapidly? For immediate 

 results we can plow them and keep them loose and 

 open with the tillage tools. For more permanent 

 results we may mix sand with them, but sand is 

 not always to be obtained and is expensive to haul. 

 The best method is to mix organic matter with 

 them by plowing in stable manures, or woods soil, 

 or decayed leaves, or by growing crops and turning 

 them under. The organic matter not only loosens 

 the soil but also adds plant food to it, and during 

 its decay produces carbonic acid which helps to 

 dissolve the mineral matter and make available the 

 plant food that is in it. < 



Clay soils can also be made loose and open by 

 applying lime to them. 



Experiment. Take two bottles or jars, put 

 therein a few spoonsful of clay soil, fill with water, 

 put a little lime in one of them, shake both and set 

 them on the table. It will be noticed that the clay 

 in the bottle containing lime settles in flakes or 

 crumbs, and much faster than in the other bottle. 

 In the same manner, lime applied to a field of clay 

 has a tendency to collect the very fine particles of 

 soil into flakes or crumbs and give it somewhat the 

 open texture of a sandy soil. Lime is applied to 

 soil for this purpose at the rate of twenty bushels 

 per acre once in four or five years. 



