44 THE SOIL OF THE FARM. 



calcareous soils. The quantity necessary will depend on 

 the quality of the clay used, and on the character of the 

 soil to be improved. It will also, to some extent, be 

 regulated by the facilities for obtaining it, and by the 

 distance from which it is to be brought. If the clay has 

 to be carted from beyond the field, the operation will 

 be found laborious and expensive. It takes one-hundred 

 and thirty-four cubic yards to cover an acre an inch deep; 

 but this is a very heavy dose when we consider that the 

 ordinary depth of cultivation does not exceed six or eight 

 inches. The usual application varies from fifty to one- 

 hundred cartloads per acre. 



The clay is spread upon the field before winter, so that 

 the frost may break it down and render it fit to be in- 

 timately mixed with the soil before working the land in 

 the spring. There are various methods of conducting 

 the operation. If the subsoil of the field supplies the 

 material, it is usual to open a number of deep furrows, at 

 twelve or twenty yards apart; and as the clay is dug out 

 it is spread equally over the surface within range, so as to 

 cover the whole interval. When the distance is greater, 

 the plank and wheelbarrow will afford the readiest and 

 most economical means of working u]^ to the point where 

 carts would have to be employed. In extensive operations 

 of this nature, especially where the material to be api)lied 

 is situated at the end of the field to be operated on, or 

 beyond it, the work may be done by means of small 

 trucks and a portable railway readily laid. 



The cost of the process necessarily varies with the 

 nature of the material, the quantity applied, and the dis- 

 tance to be carted, etc. A dressing of clay will cost more 

 per cubic yard than a dressing of sand, when the latter is 

 a desirable a])])lication, from the difficulty with which in 

 the former case the manual jiortion of the labor is per- 

 formed. 



