!<)« 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



DECFMBER ae, I'S'-.S. 



(b'foiii Lli.r London Farmer's JIagazine for October.) 



ON THE BEST MEANS OF PERMANENTLY j 

 IMPROVING THE CLASS OF CLAY 

 SOILS. 



Clay soils are distinguished by their adh.'sive- 

 nes3. They stick to the feet when dainp, they im- 

 bibe moisture slowly, but do not transmit it freely 

 for the use of plants, and when stroni,' clay soils 

 are brought quickly from a wet to n dry state, they 

 approacli to the state of bricks previous to their 

 being burned. Clay soils are tilled with difficulty 

 when too dry, and when too wet this operation has 

 the same effect as the tempering of clay has, in the 

 art of brick making. 



The tillage of such land in a proper state is 

 therefore of the j^reatest importance, and this is 

 best performed when it is neither too wet nor too 

 dry. 



Poor thin claya upon a retentive subsoil are the 

 most unprofitable ; the expense of their cuitivatio.n, 

 under the present system is great, being frequently 

 equal to the value of the produce and sometimes 

 far a^vc it. Their natural produce is coarse grass 

 of very light value, fit only for young beasts. 



Clay soils are best calculated for the production 

 of plants that have fibrous roots, particularly 

 wheat, beans, oats, vetches, clover, cabbage, grass, 

 &o. 



While tlie liglit sandy soils liave been greatly 

 improved by the adoption of a new system of cul- 

 ture,- the poor clays remain in the same state they 

 were in a century ago, without cny, increase to 

 their productiveness; indeed they are rather in a 

 worse state than formerly. It is therefore supposed 

 •by some agriculturists, that as there ha^=? been no 

 improvements in the clay soils, while there has 

 bgen so great an increase in the productiveness of 

 ^andy soils that the clays are not susceptible of 

 improvement with tlie least chance of a proper re- 

 turn. 



There is no doubt but a belter system couJJ bo 

 adopted for the cultivation of such strong clay 

 soils than that which is pursued in the common 

 fields, ar.U on the clays of Bedford, Huntington, 

 Cambridge, and other counties on tlie malm, gault, 

 oak-tree, clunch, O.xford and blue lias clays. 



The course of cropping adopted in the common 

 cfields and on thin clay, is simuner fallow, if dunged, 

 wheat, and then beans ; or without dung, barley, 

 then oats, then fallow again, and this is the same 

 as it was 100 years ago. 



The chief cause of thus neglecting tlie clay 

 soils is the difficulty and expense of cultivating 

 them and of converting them into pasture, after 

 having been long kept under this system of arable 

 cultivation. It is difficult to convert such land into 

 good pasture, but it has been overcome and the 

 best and most profitable results have followed. 



There is a much greater difficulty in getting a 

 poor, cold, clay farm lot, than on'.; consisting of a 

 poor sandy soil. The' capital and ability required 

 for the former being not only much greater, and of 

 a higher order, but the risk is also much more in 

 cultivating the clay, than the sand, as .the mode of 

 improving the land and securing good crops on 

 sandy soils by claying is easy and certain, and the 

 turnip and sheep husbandry cannot be adopted on 

 clays, 



Besides, the system of cultivating light sand or 

 loamy soils has been so long established, and the 

 Norfolk or four-field system has now become so 

 much the beaten track, that it would be difficult 



for the farmers who have been brought up to it, 

 to leave off, altliough a better one were shown 

 them. 



The turnip, and sheep system, however, cannot 

 be adopted on clay soils, till they are completely 

 drained and subsoil ploughed, and till sand or 

 light and porous matter be added to alter their 

 texture. 



Some new impulse must be given to agricultural 

 speculations before the cold wet clay soil will ever 

 attain tiiat degree of improvement which they are 

 capable of, and which has been effected in the 

 sandy and peaty soils. 



The landlords should encourage tenants with 

 capital and talent, by letting farms at low rents 

 under improving leases, similar to the building 

 leases granted in great towns ; and binding them 

 by certiin covenants to improve the land by com- 

 plete subsoil drainage and the application of alter- 

 natives ; and by a projjer mode of culture, to con- 

 vert a certain portion of the arable land into pasture 

 under a particular mode found to be tiie best and 

 surest for effecting its amelioration. Permanent 

 improvement undertaken by an intelligent and in- 

 dustrious farmer under tlie security of an improving 

 lease is the best and most profitable mode of perma- 

 nently improving land. 



Perhaps Lord Karnes's mode of letting land for 

 this object is the best, with additional covenants 

 binding the tenant to improve, by altering the tex- 

 ture of such soils as would be improved by it. It 

 ought ever to be kept in mind, that the only true 

 and systematic stimulus to improvement of any 

 kind, is the certainty of profit in the outlay of cap- 

 ital. This is the main spring to all our exertion^; 

 without the certainty of occupying his improve- 

 ments for such a length of time as will enable 

 him to reap the advantage of his outlay, wo may 

 be assured that no man will either invest his own 

 capital, or be inclined to borrow money to be laid 

 out in the improvement of another man's estate. 



There is no doubt, however, but thin clay soils 

 could be easily improved, and, perhaps, in a much 

 greater degree than the sandy soils have been du- 

 ring the last -10 years : and the surface may yet be 

 seen clotlied with a rich herbage which shall vie 

 with that of other soils in producing tlie best cheese, 

 beef, and mutton. 



Clay soils will produce pasture just in propor- 

 tion to the quantity of decaying active vegetable 

 matter in their composition. If this be abundant, 

 the crop will be ricli and luxuriant; and the decay- 

 ing fibrous roots will form a dry, porous soil, giving 

 a sufficient depth for the rain to sink through the 

 subsoil, where it will run off by the furrow drains. 

 If there be little vegetable matter in the soil, the 

 the moisture will make the earthy matter in it col- 

 lapse and adhere together ; and it will form a cold, 

 wet, sterile clay, producing little else but carnation 

 grass of little value. 



t Pasture on clay soils should never be converted 



into arable culture, unless the application of skill 



i and capital, will not only repay the additional cx- 



1 pense of the culture, but also tend to increase the 



' permanent productiveness of the soil. Without a 



proper application of skill, capital, and industry on 



, such land, the converting it into arable culture will 



only tend t.) diminish the produce, if the free pro- 



i duce under the artificial culture falls short of that 



which nature itself afforded. 



I Much may be learned from the practice of mar- 

 ket gardeners, in the neighborhood of London and 

 elsewhere. They have two methods of trenching 



their land. When the soil and subsoil are gooi 

 to a great depth, they turn the surface under anc 

 fetch up a fre-h spit from below to constitute th« 

 surface for so many years ; but when the subsoi 

 is poor or strong clay, they bastard trench it, as 

 they call it ; that is, they throw the surface spit for 

 ward, always keeping it uppermost, and dig th« 

 subsoil by turning it over in the trench withou 

 moving it from its place. 



Their object in thus trenching their clay soils is 

 to get depth for the rain-water to descend, and tf 

 give a greater depth of moisture to the roots «, 

 plants in dry weather, and for the superabund ui' 

 moisture in weather to descend below the roots ol 

 plants, and run off to the drain. 



If we perfectly drain thin clay soil by furrow 

 draining, and deepen the subsoil by trenching witl 

 the .'j.ade or the subsoil plough, making it pervious 

 to the moisture which falls on it, that it may imme- 

 diately sink to a depth below the reach of the rootf 

 of the plants, the cultivated surface will be dry 

 and if we rtduce the tenacity of the soil by apply- 

 ing to it those light or sandy substances, which 

 when well incorporated with it, will make and keef 

 the soil permanently porous and friable, then the; 

 land which before produced only a poor crop o: 

 carnation grass, or if arable, of oats, will now pro 

 duce an abundant crop of wheat, beans, oats, do 

 ver, and even turnips ; and if properly laid down | 

 and full of manure will form a rich pasturage fo:l 

 any kind of stock. 



When clay soils have dry per^'ious subsoils, the) 

 become durker in color from the repeated applica 

 tion of manures, and under a proper system of cul- 

 tivation they lose their adhesiveness, and become !■ 

 loamy soil, producing the most fruitful crops c 

 wheat, beans, clover, vetches, cabbage, and natu- 

 rally produce the best and richest herbage foi 

 dairy cows. The milk from cows fed on such pas- 

 ture produces more cheese and butter than the mill 

 from cows fed on a sandy soil, and of a bettei 

 quality. 



Anything which '"■ill produce permanent fria- 

 bility in clay soils, such as sand, lime, burnt clay 

 loose light vegetable matter, or long unfermentec 

 manure, will alter its texture and improve its qual- 

 ify- 



When tenacious soils are completely subset 



drained, and a system of deep or subsoil ploughing 

 is adopted, every time when the land is in summei 

 fallow, if the soil be deepened and the subsoil 

 made more porous ; and if never ploughed whei 

 too wet, and a full portion of vegetable manure b( 

 given to the soil, and well mixed with it, a mechan- 

 ical effect will be produced, which will change the 

 nature and texture of the soil, and give to it that 

 friability which is so e.ssential in all productive 

 soils. The rain that falls on it will now percolate 

 through it to the depth of the new formed subsoil 

 and thence to the furrow drains. 



The soil now receives the circulation of the air 

 which is carried on by the rains filling up the in. 

 terstices which the air previously occui)iod, and the 

 complete drainage draws off all the superabundant 

 water as it falls. By this operation the earth again 

 receives a fresh supply of air from the atmosphere, 

 which promotes a chemical as well as mechanica: 

 action in the soil, and hastens the decomposition ot 

 the air and water, as well as the vegetable and an- 

 imal manure it contains, and thus a liberal supply 

 of the nourishment necessary for the growth of 

 plants is obtained. 



Soil that is principally composed of calcareous 



