SOILS. 13 



Ridging up of land, as above hinted at, has the 

 happiest effect, especially for stiff soils, and should 

 never be omitted when the ground is not under crop. 

 In dead sandy loams also, and in cankering gravels, 

 it is of incalculable advantage, and greatly meliorates 

 them. For it is a fact proved by experience, that, 

 exposing soil to the sun's rays in part, by throwing 

 it into a heap, whereby it is also partly shaded, and 

 trenching it once a-month, or in two months, will 

 sooner restore it to fertility than any other process, 

 exclusively of adding fresh matter. 



And thus, if any ingredient, noxious to vegeta- 

 tion, abound in the soil, it may be expelled, or be 

 exhaled by the action of the atmosphere ; more 

 particularly if the soil undergo a summer, and also 

 a winter fallow. In the latter case, however, care 

 should be taken to have the surface incrusted by 

 frost, as often as possible, by turning it, and giving 

 it a new surface each succeeding thaw. 



That kitchen vegetables do best on what is term- 

 ed new land, is a generally received opinion, and is 

 plainly demonstrated in many instances. It is also 

 a common complaint among gardeners, that their 

 ground, by being, as it is termed, worn out, will not 

 produce certain kinds of vegetables : not that it is 

 poor and hungry, or altogether unfitted to the 

 production of them, having perhaps formerly pro- 

 duced the very articles in great abundance ; but 

 that the surface has been many years under these 

 crops, and that they have not a sufficient quantity 

 of ground for a proper change. In walled gardens 

 this complaint is most general ; and it would ap- 



