CHEMICAL CLASSIFICATION OF SOILS. 249 



in New England, where these lands are in too many cases 

 suffered to lie waste. Our peat swamps are decidedly the 

 most valuable of all our soils, because they contain food for 

 the plants of a thousand generations ; they ought rather 

 to be called manures than soils. 



Crops. " Peat soils," says Buel, "are best calculated for oats, 

 potatoes, rye, turnips, carrots and Indian corn ; clover, timo- 

 thy, red-top and other grasses." If the swamps in the east- 

 ern part of Massachusetts were fitted for grass, they would 

 become more profitable than any other lands which are culti- 

 vated. 



6. Alluvial soils. These have already been described, 

 p. 231. It is a remarkable fact, that according to the analy- 

 sis of Prof Hitchcock, the alluvial soils of New England, and 

 of the West, contain less vegetable matter than most other 

 soils. Their fertility, therefore, must depend upon the min- 

 eral ingredients being in a more finely divided state, and to 

 their power of converting insoluble into soluble food ; it is 

 hence inferred, that these soils will be soonest exhausted, un- 

 less supplied with vegetable and animal matters. 



7. Loamy soils. Loams occupy an intermediate place be- 

 tween clayey and sandy soils, and originate from a constant 

 course of tillage, and the application of animal and vegetable 

 manures, for a course of years. It is the desire of our far- 

 mers, to bring all their soil into the state of loams. 



Properties. The properties of loams are well known ; 

 they are less tenacious than clay, and more so than sand, 

 They are very friable, capable of sustaining drought or wetness 

 and easily ploughed at almost every season of the year. They 

 are the most desirable of all soils. The alluvial soils describ- 

 ed in the last section answer to the loams, as the materials 

 are fine and beautifully mingled together. They are divided 

 by Sinclair into four sorts : I. sandy ; 2. gravelly ; 3. clay- 

 ey ; and 4. peaty. 



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