200 PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 



and producing nothing of any value. It might ap- 

 pear that by digging a deep ditch no great distance, 

 the water might be drawn off and the land made ex- 

 ceedingly fertile. It might appear also that the mud 

 which would be taken out, would be worth all the 

 labor, to amend an adjoining patch of sandy 3oil, and 

 that the sand might be brought with great advantage, 

 by the returning team, to the low land. In this case, 

 an improvement could be made at an expense far less 

 than its v/orth. 



^7. On another part of this farm might be a de- 

 posit of pure clay, and near by a plot of sandy loam, 

 an easy soil to work, and giving moderate crops, but 

 not having sufficient consistency to hold manures. A 

 few loads of clay would give it the requisite consis- 

 tency. There is many a sandy loam which would be 

 benefited more by ten loads of manure and ten of clay 

 than by twenty of manure, because the clay enables 

 the soil to hold the manure, whereas, if manure be ap- 

 plied alone, it escapes into the subsoil and into the air. 

 This I suppose to be one of these cases, and it is evi- 

 dent that an amendment can be made at a cost less 

 than its value. 



878. There may be on another part of the farm a 

 sandy loam and a clay -soil, at no great distance from 

 each other, one not sufficiently tenacious to render it 

 safe to commit manure to its keeping, the other a little 

 too tenacious to be worked comfortably. It is evident 

 that, by exchanging a few loads back and forth, the 

 faults of both wilt be corrected. The clay-soil will be 



