No. 151.] 395 



raised economically, then head land, or any stiff soil should be ap' 

 plied. In my 'opinion, light sandy soils can never be so advanta- 

 geously cultivated, as when their properties are so altered by amend- 

 ments, as to enable them to retain the manures applied, and the 

 particles of soil brought in such a state of proximity as to properly 

 fix the plants, and enable the roots to perform their functions. 



No. five; fields exhausted hy severe cropping. The soil must be 

 considered in a two-fold light, in reference to its importance to grow- 

 ing plants. First, as fixing them, and secondly, furnishing them their 

 daily food. The fact is, the soil is a great store house of vegetable 

 food, the quantity of which, however, varies in different localities; 

 sometimes it is so abundant that the yearly crops which feed from it, 

 do not exhaust it, but in other locations the quantity is so small, 

 that a few years is sufficient to exhaust so many of its composing 

 elements, as to make it incapable of producing similar crops for 

 ever afterwards, without those constituents or their substitutes are 

 again added. To ascertain exactly what has been lost, the best plan 

 undoubtedly would be to apply to the analytic chemist; he could 

 tell in what manner such soil differed from the most highly produc- 

 tive soil. But yet I cannot say I place so much importance upon 

 this mode of investigation as some have done, at least as it has ge- 

 nerally been proposed or employed, for as it has been before intima- 

 ted, the circumstances, condition and constituents of the soil may 

 differ so materially on the farm, or in the various fields, or even in 

 the same fields, that a single examination of the soil of a farm, or 

 even three or four analyses, would not amount to much; and then 

 again, if the exact composition of the soil were knowm, and the re- 

 medy for its improvement proposed, it is far from being certain that 

 the condition of the soil at the time would admit of its use with any 

 prospect of success. Suppose, for instance, a specimen of soil were 

 examined, and found to be wanting in azotized matters, and pou- 

 drette or guano were recommended as containing an abundance of 

 such elements; now if the land were dry and arid, such stimulating 

 manures would assist the scorching sun to destroy your crop in a 

 very dry season ; or if the ground were cold and wet, all the expense 

 of the manure and its application would be lost in a very wet sea- 

 son. Again, to take a more abstruse view of this subject, the value 

 of the application of such substances as chemistry would suggest, 

 depends very much upon the exact constituents of the soil at the 

 time of the application. 



