48 GRAIN. 



and plumpness of berry, fully confirming, to my . mind, the 

 soundness of our revered friend, John Johnson's views on the 

 use of salt as a fertilizer for wheat and rye." 



Throughout the northern part of Worcester County w^e find 

 any amount of dry sandy, spongy soils, such as are surface dry 

 in a few hours after a heavy rain, consequently produce only 

 meager crops, or no crops at all, unless the season proves wet. 

 On such soils in ({uite dry seasons an extra layer of manure 

 seems to be lost ; it dries up and is taken into the atmosphere. 



When lands are too Avet and retain surface water, the remedy 

 is either surface or thorough drainage. It is expensive but ef- 

 fectual in the end. Now what can be done to improve those soils 

 where crops entirely dry up ? In wet summers soils of this char- 

 acter are quite productive, if well manured. It is plain if we 

 could add something to them to retain the moisture of the dews 

 and gentle rains, we might get very fair crops from them, even 

 in dry seasons. The reason that dry lands require so much 

 more manure than loamy soils, is that the rains wash all the fer- 

 tilizing properties of the manures through the porous soil and out 

 of reach of vegetation ; and from the porosity of the soil the air 

 has too great access, so that vegetation decays rapidly and the 

 ammonia 'is carried ofi'into the atmosphere and is nearly all lost 

 to the crop. 



Now what is the remedy ? 



Meadow muck or peat is generally most accessible and comes 

 within the reach of most farms. It is well known that when peat 

 has been thrown into piles to season, for months after it is still 

 wet. It absorbs moisture from the atmosphere and retains it 

 similar to that of a sponge, and will hold from 50 to 100 per cent, 

 of its own weight of water, according to its porosity, nor does it 

 part with it very rapidly ; it dries almost as slowly as clay. Now 

 if twenty loads of muck to the acre be spread and plowed in for three 

 successive years, it will make about one inch more of soil and a 

 sufficient quantity for the purpose of retaining the moisture and 

 preventing the escape of ammonia. Soils of this character and 

 thus treated, as they are easily cultivated, would probably pay a 

 better per cent, in some hoed crop than to remain in pasture and 

 get no return from them except wiry grass, hard-hack and mul- 

 lein. 



It is weU known to farmers generally that light sandy soils are 

 subject to frequent and rapid changes of temperature, that is, thej 



