Clay, Sand, Etc. 75 



they need in a form that permits of its immediate use. Therefore, in 

 preparing such land, I would advise deep plowing while it is moist, if 

 possible, soon after a rain ; then the harrowing in of a liberal top- 

 dressing of rotted compost, or of muck sweetened by the action of frost 

 and the fermentation of manure, or, best of all, the product of the cow* 

 stable. Decayed leaves, sods and wood ashes also make excellent 

 fertilizers. 



In the garden, light soils can be given a much more stable and 

 productive character by covering them with clay to the depth of one 

 or two inches every fall, and then plowing it in. The winter's frost 

 and rains mix the two diverse soils, to their mutual benefit. Carting 

 sand on clay is rarely remunerative ; the reverse is decidedly so, and 

 top-dressings of clay on light land are often more beneficial than equal 

 amounts of manure. 



As practically employed, I regard quick, stimulating manures, like 

 guano, very injurious to light soils. I believe them to be the curse of 

 the South. They are used " to make a crop," as it is termed ; and 

 they do make it for a few years, but to the utter impoverishment of 

 the land. The soil becomes as exhausted as a man would be should he 

 seek to labor under the support of stimulants only. In both instances,, 

 an abundance of food is needed. A quinine pill is not a dinner, and a 

 dusting of guano or phosphate cannot enrich the land. 



And yet, by the aid of these stimulating commercial fertilizers, the 

 poorest and thinnest soil can be made to produce fine strawberries, if 

 sufficient moisture can be maintained. Just as a physician can rally an 

 exhausted man to a condition in which he can take and be strengthened by 

 food, so land, too poor and light to sprout a pea, can be stimulated into- 

 producing a meager green crop of some kind, which, plowed under, will ena- 

 ble the land to produce a second and heavier burden. This, in turn, placed 

 in the soil, will begin to give a suggestion of fertility. Thus, poor or 

 exhausted soils can be made, by several years of skillful management, to 

 convalesce slowly into strength. 



Whether such patient outlay of time and labor will pay on a continent 

 abounding in land naturally productive, is a very dubious question. 



Coarse, gravelly soils are usually even worse. If we must grow our 

 strawberries on them, give the same general treatment that I have just 

 suggested. 



On some peat soils, the strawberry thrives abundantly ; on others it 

 burns and dwindles. Under such conditions I should experiment with 

 bone dust, ashes, etc., until I found just what was lacking. 



No written directions can take the place of common sense, judgment. 



