CHAPTER Y. 



SOILS, DRAINAGE, AND PREPARATION. 



In the course of an experience of nearly 20 years as a 

 market gardener, in the neighborhood of New York, I have 

 had, in the prosecution of the business, the opportunity 

 of reclaiming large tracts of very different varieties of soil. 

 Some of these, almost the first season, yielded a handsome 

 profit, while with others, the labor of years, and the ex- 

 penditure of large sums in extra manuring and draining, 

 have never been able to bring these uncongenial soils up 

 to the proper standard of productiveness. 



The variety of soil that we value above all others, is an 

 alluvial saline deposit, rarely found over more than a mile 

 inland from the tide mark. It is of dark heavy loam, con- 

 taining, throughout, a large mixture of decomposing oyster 

 and other shells ; it averages from 10 to 30 inches deep, 

 overlaying a subsoil of yellow sandy loam. The next 

 best variety is somewhat lighter soil, both in color and 

 specific gravity, from 8 to 15 inches deep, having a similar 

 subsoil to the above. Then we have a still lighter soil, in 

 both senses of the term, in which the sand predominates 

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