14 



the effect of the sandy nature of this material, put on in large 

 quantities, on the texture of the soil. One or two striking cases of 

 this have been brought to my notice. In one case a distinctly rich 

 top-dressing soil was applied to a stiff clayey soil, but as the top-dress- 

 ing soil itself was likewise very clayey, to the surprise of all concerned 

 practically no benefit was noticed. In another district, a top-dressing 

 soil submitted to me was not really rich but sandy and hence 

 on a heavy clay soil showed some beneficial effect the following year. 

 Nevertheless, I cannot recommend the application of mere sand 

 as a rule to land to make it lighter, and it always makes one shudder 

 at the waste when one sees mere sandy subsoil without any other 

 value being lifted on to the top of land as top-dressing. The dressing 

 is very expensive, it adds nothing which is itself of vital importance 

 to the soil, and it is only more or less temporary in character. There 

 are, I think, other means of obtaining a friable soil less costly, and 

 more effective than the plan used, I am afraid, in many places during 

 the past two or three years, of putting even several inches of sand on 

 the surface of the soil. 



TILTH. 



But the soil may be friable without the particles being of large 

 size, as in the above cases. During the growing season one may say 

 that it always is friable on a well-conducted English farm, though 

 this may be composed of a tenacious clay soil, and this condition of 

 friability is known as "tilth." Without it, is almost impossible to 

 grow any crop well, tea not excepted, on many soils, and the more 

 perfect it is the more luxuriantly, other things being equal, will the 

 crop grow. This favourable texture is due to the formation of 

 compound particles in the soil. One may regard a soil as being 

 composed of a mass of particles of all different sizes, and there are 

 constant tendencies for these to form themselves unto groups, and 

 other causes tending to keep them separate. The more the former 

 predominate the more the soil will approach a coarse soil in type, 

 and hence be more friable, and more suitable for tea : the more the 

 latter the less valuable will the soil be for our purpose. In fact it 

 may be said that a soil in good " tilth," if this tilth can only be 

 retained (even if its particles are not so coarse as those given above 

 as very suitable), represents the very best condition of surface soil for 

 growing tea. 



