SOILS AND THEIR TREATMENT 



IT is by no means essential that a gardener should possess 

 scientific or chemical knowledge of the constituents or com- 

 position of the soil of his garden. Many good cultivators 

 never have possessed such knowledge, yet have obtained 

 splendid crops. It is not our purpose in this chapter on 

 soils to enter into any scientific disquisition on their com- 

 position, as it is outside the scope of a beginner's book. 

 Would-be cultivators of the soil in other words, gardeners 

 soon find that, whilst scientific knowledge of soil composts 

 may be of some value to them, greater value is derived from 

 sound information relating to cultivation and cropping, and 

 this it is our intention to furnish. 



Soils are of very light, porous, sandy material ; of a com- 

 bination of stone-brash or gravel with loam which is, by the 

 by, a term applied to soils that have clay and sand in about 

 equal proportions ; of chalk, which is abundant in various 

 localities, and if for a time thin and poor becomes eventually, 

 with good tilling, very fertile ; and finally clay, a descrip- 

 tion of soil in which sand is materially absent, is very close, 

 almost impervious to moisture or air, and, if retentive of 

 moisture when wetted, yet has the reverse demerit of drying 

 intensely hard and becoming difficult to work or crop in hot 

 dry seasons. Whatever description of soil it may be the 

 cultivator's lot to till, it is obvious that his aim must be to 

 endeavour to associate retentive matter in the form of clay 

 with soils that are very light, sandy, gravelly, or porous, and 

 that quickly part with moisture and become unduly dry under 

 the influence of sun or wind. The application of sand or 

 of any light porous mineral or vegetable matter to clay soils 

 tends to the same ends. But every gardener finds that in 

 time deep working, such as trenching ground presents, allied 

 to the introduction of vegetable or animal matter in a state 

 of semi-decay, does great good to all descriptions of soils 

 Deep culture is often effective as drainage, allowing surplus 

 moisture to escape and enabling the air to permeate the soil, 

 purifying and sweetening it and causing it to become fertile. 



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