42 THE SOIL OF THE FARM. 



CHAPTER V. 



IMPROVEMENT OF SOILS.— MIXING, CLAYING, LIMING, 

 CHALKING, MARLING, BURNING. 



Mixing Soils : Clay, Sand, and Lime.— Claying : Process, Cost.— 

 Liming: Marling, Challiing. — Burning: Paring and Burning, 

 Stifle burning, Clay burning. 



Mixing Soils. — Soils which possess conspicuous de- 

 fects 111 their physical and even in their chemical proper- 

 ties may in many cases be rendered fertile and productive 

 by a proper admixture. Loams, indeed, which are per- 

 haps the most productive kind of soils, are naturally j^ro- 

 duced in this way, being a mixture of sand and clay. 

 The nearer, therefore, we can bring a soil of a different 

 nature in approach to this character, the greater j^robably 

 will be its improvement. 



When a soil is too clayey, it will be improved by an 

 application of sand or sandy loam; calcareous, sandy, and 

 peaty soils are equally benefited by the addition of clay; 

 while calcareous earth may be added to clays, sands, and 

 peats with the certainty of ultimate and permanent bene- 

 fit. There are thus at least four varieties of soil which 

 may be profitably improved by admixture, if circum- 

 stances are favorable. There is this, however, to remark 

 as limiting our ability in this respect — that it is only 

 those earths whose presence in comparatively small pro- 

 portion is sufficient that we can usefully apply. If land 

 be too stiff, it would probably need its sandy part to bo 

 doubled in order to make the land as friable and loose in 

 texture as is desired; and there might thus have to be an 

 addition of five-hundred tons of sandy loam per acre — a 

 labor whose cost is absolutely prohibitive. To double 

 the percentage of alumina in a very sandy soil, and thus 



