AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



PUHLISHED BV JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agricultubai. Warehouse.) 



VOL. XVII.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 26, 1838. 



two. 1*. 



AGRICULTURAL 



ON THE MEANS OF INCREASING THE 

 FERTILITY OF LAND. 



The productivene.s3 of any soil, we think, de- 

 pends entirely on its natural or artificial capnbility 

 of retaining and transmitting its moisture, the 

 vehicle at least by which nourishment is conveyed 

 to plants. This productive power may therefore 

 not only be continued in its greatest vigor, but 

 greatly increased by proper management. When 

 we by any means give to the soil a permanently 

 increased vegetative power, we also increase the 

 yearly produce wliich it yields. 



Some soils produce large crops often repeated 

 without manure, five crops of corn and a fallow are 

 the conditions entered in some leases in the neigli- 

 hood of Wisbeach in Lincolnshire, while other 

 land will produce nothing without great expense of 

 culture and manure, nor will an e.vcess of manure 

 make such land permanently productive ; but if we 

 change its constituent parts by the addition of those 

 earthy materials of whicit it is deficient, so as to 

 bring it nearer to the nature of those soils which 

 we know to be fertile, then we shall permanently 

 increase its productive powers. 



Water being the vehicle by which nourishment 

 is conveyed to plants, the soil, whoee con5t'"uent 

 parts is best adapted for retaining a sufScient sup. 

 ply and transmitting a proper portion in very dry 

 weather to the plants growing in it without holding 

 it in injurious quantities in the time of very wet 

 weather, is possessed of the principle of vegeta- 

 tion and will be found to be of the most produc- 

 tive nature. Such a soil will give not only firm- 

 ness to support the plants, but will facilitate the 

 growth of their roots in search of moisture and 

 nourishment to the greatest depth. 



There is not an individual who cultivates a gar 

 den and who e.xercises his judgment in its culture, 

 but knows that the addition of clay gives cohesion 

 to san iy or gravelly soils, and that sand and grave 

 when mixed with a clayey soil diminislies its tena- 

 cious property ; and that these changes thus effected 

 permanently increase the productive powers of 

 both. 



In our endeavor to improve barren soils, we 

 should examine them in connection with fertile 

 soils in their neighborhood, on the same geological 

 formation, and the difference of their constituent 

 parts may lead us to the means of their improve- 

 ment. If the cause of sterility be owing to some 

 defects in their composition, these defects should 

 be supplied. An excess of silicious sand is im- 

 proved by the application of clay, peat earth, or 

 calcareous matter, cold well rotten manure, and 

 rolling or trampling with sheep or other stock, to 

 consolidate its texture. 



When clay is in excess, it is remedied by the 

 application of sand, chalk marl, or burned clay, 

 light unferniented manures, and perfect pulveriza- 

 tion, to make the soil friable. An excess of vege- 

 table matter as in peaty soils, in a dormant state 



is corrected by burning, by the application of clay, 

 sand, calcareous matter, gravel, rubble, or anything 

 heavy, to give firmness to the soil. Lime not only 

 1 estroys the injurious effects produced by sulphate 

 of iron which abounds in some soils, particularly 

 in those of a peaty and silicious gravelly nature, 

 but is said to convert the sulphate of iron into a 

 manure. None of these applications however, will 

 have tlie desired efiect, unless there be first a per- 

 fect subsoil drainage of all superfluous moisture 

 conjoined with a perfect tillage. To alter the 

 nature and properties of the constituents of any 

 soils may be more expensive than to manure it ; 

 but the effect of th'i former will be lasting, while 

 that of the latter is transitory; the one permanent- 

 ly improves the nature and quality of the soil, the 

 other only imparts a temporary excitement to force 

 a crop for a year or two. 



The materials necessary for the permanent im- 

 provement of the soil are seldom far off, and the 

 e-xpense, though in some instances considerable, 

 is soon repaid by the permanency of its increased 

 fertility; the manure applied afterwards has a much 

 greater effect, the expense of cultivation is greatly 

 diminished, and the capital laid out is soon restored 

 by its yearly increased produce. By these altera- 

 tions we store the earth with hidden and inex- 

 haustible treasures, wliich invisible to the eye put 

 forth their strength and give us the evidence of 

 their presence by the effects produced oiuvegeta- 

 tion. 



In the process of vegetation, nature supplies 

 soil, water, light, and he.it ; but the matter compos- 

 ing the soil may not be in such a state as to re- 

 ceive, and transmit these in such quantities as will 

 produce a healthy vegetation. 



Man may regulate the supply by cultivation, and 

 by altering tl.\e te.\ture of the soils. 



When the materials of which the soil is com- 

 posed are in projier proportion, the soil is most pro- 

 ductive ; when any one of the ingredients is in too 

 great a proportion, the soil is unproductive. 



Pure clay, sile.x or lime, we have before stated, 

 are barren, if they are fofind alone ; but if they are 

 mixed together, having a due portion of water, the 

 influence of the sun, and a proper admission of 

 air, (which are the prime movers in vegetable life) 

 a fermentation amongst the materials is created ; 

 and if vegetable and animal manure in a state of 

 decomposition be combined with these, the soil 

 whicli was sterile when separate will become pro- 

 ductive when combined, and this mixture of mate- 

 rials and mechanical alteration will change the te.\- 

 ture, and improve the quality of the soiL 



Neither the clay, the silex, nor the lime are de- 

 composed by this process, but the soil composed of 

 these materials in proper proportions has the power 

 of combining with, and decomposing the vegeta- 

 ble and animal matter, the water, and air which it 

 contains, and produce results which afford the ne- 

 cessary food for the growth of plants. i 

 When the pai tides of earth which compose the 

 soil are separate from each other, or well pulver- 

 ized, it holds the greatest quantity of free or avai'- 



ble moisture, and readily transmits it to the plants 

 which are growing in it ; but when the particles of 

 the e;irth are closely packed togetlier, like new 

 made bricks, it neither can receive moisture, nor 

 will it give out tliat which it already possesses. 



Good soils are naturally possessed of certain 

 powers!, with which, bj^ the aid of husbandry, we 

 caji produce certain effects ; on poor sterile soils, 

 these powers may be conferred by artificially alter- 

 ing their te.'cture. 



When the fluid in the soil is so connected with 

 the fluid in the plant, and gives out to it a con- 

 stant and healthy supply, then we say the soil is 

 in goiad condition. 



Manure applied to the soil increases its vegeta- 

 tive powers, but the way in which it acts is not 

 well understood. The processes of the small root- 

 lets are so very minute, that no crude substance 

 can pass through them ; it can therefore, only be 

 taken up by them in the form of water or gas, and 

 be absorbed by the leaves. 



Well rotten manure gives an unctuous or cohe- 

 sive property ; but when in a loose or strawy state, 

 it gives a porousness or looseness to the soil. 



All mineral manures, as lime, chalk, marl, sand, 

 gravel, ditch mould, road scrapings, and earthy mat- 

 ter, act on tbe soil merely as an alterative, by 

 changing the -constituents of the soil and improv- 

 ift^ its texture, and by giving it an increasing 

 pV|W>'r of imbibing and decomposing water, air, and 

 organic matter. 



The most abundant ingredients in soil are sand 

 and clay, and as a mixture of the one with the 

 other tends to improve both, nature has so ordered 

 it, that those are generally found in great abun- 

 dance near to each other. 



In the plastic clay formation, e.xtensive tracts of 

 sandy soil are found lying upon the brick clay ; 

 the soil of which is greatly improved by lifting up 

 the clay, and spreading it over tlie sand at the rate 

 of 100 cubic yards to the acre. 



There is also a considerable extent of this for- 

 mation covered with flinty gravel, mixed with clay 

 and sand, with a thin covering of black mould or 

 peat earth for its surface, which produces heatli 

 and furze. 



This lies near the clay, and the whole of this 

 may be greatly improved by trenching, or other- 

 wise mixing the sand and gravel with the clay be- 

 low. The most of this is near the chalk, and 

 would be greatly improved by an admixture of 80 

 or 100 cubic yards of it per acre. Chalk or lime 

 destroys the pernicious effects of the sulphate of 

 iron in the gravelly soil, and makes the soil which 

 was worthless, so productive as to pay the whole 

 of the expense in a year or two. 



Soil that is chielly composed of finely divided 

 or impalpable matter, is greatly improved by the 

 application of small stones, gravel or coarse sand ; 

 as this prevents the soil from collapsing or consoli- 

 dating during continual rain. 



All alteratives should be put on the land in 

 small quantities at a time, or if in large quantities 

 it should be when the land is in fallow ;'and these 



