AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 161 



measures fifteen inches around its body a foot above the ground. None of 

 these trees have a blight upon them, while trees near by, treated in the 

 usual way of open culture, have not over one-third the growth, and already 

 show the mark of dotage, the yellow leaf, and the worm of time." 



SALINE MANURES. 



Mr. Pell. — Our subject for to-day is one of great importance to the Ag- 

 ricultural interest, as with lime, salt, ashes, &c., &c., we can change the 

 character and constitution of our soils. Naturally each soil establishes 

 upon itself a vegetation suited exactly to its nature, being governed bv the 

 substances in the soil, and if the growth is not suited to the taste of the 

 farmer, he must, by artificial means, change the constitution of the land, 

 and he has the power to alter at will its chemical and physical qualities, 

 and compel it to grow other races of grasses than those which nature has 

 implanted in it. Or if advisable, he may quadruple the abundance and 

 luxuriance of the races it bears. In the production of changes such as 

 these, rests the skill of the practical agriculturist. In the aecomplish- 

 ment of such great objects, he drains, plows, harrows, irrigates, limes, 

 sands, clays, marls, manures, and compels it to produce whatever he 

 desires. When he drains and ploughs, he changes the physical character 

 of his land ; when he limes and marls, the chemical constitution. If he 

 finds the soil produces fine crops he may be assured that mechanical opera- 

 tions alone is all that will be required to retain it in fertility. If but one 

 inorganic constituent is wanting, it will be comparatively speaking sterile, 

 and no crop will succeed. And as I have introduced two classes of agri- 

 cultural operations, I will ask permission to consider them both. 



The mechanical modes of improving soil, are ploughing, harrowing, irri- 

 gating, mixing with clay, sand, marls, &c. The chemical modes include 

 lime, vegetables, animal and mineral manures. 



Clay soils are generally considered by farmers peculiarly adapted for 

 wheat ; loam soils for barley ; sandy soils for oats ; gravelly soils for rye, 

 corn, &c. In sandy soils, contiguous to the sea, salt-loving plants abound, 

 such as asparagus, &c. When these lands are drained, and subsoil ploughed, 

 the rains wash out the excess of salt, and they become nutritive grass soils. 



Sandy soils, remote from the sea, are distinguished for their growth of 

 grasses, and these may be made to bear nutritive grasses by the addition 

 of the decomposed saline plants from the soils in the neighborhood of the 

 Bea. On ordinary sandy soils leguminous plants rarely grow. By the 

 addition of marl to such soils they immediately appear. If your land is 

 Bandy, and you observe the colt's-foot growing upon any portion of it, you 

 may naturally infer that there is marl in the subsoil, which may be ob- 

 tained by digging, and placed on the surface. On soils abounding in lime, 

 couch-grass is rarely seen. Wherever it may be found, clay will generally 

 form the subsoil, and this may be used advantageously as a top-dressing. 



Peat soils yield a grass peculiar to them, known as the Holcus lanatus, 

 which is soft, rich and luxuriant ; lime frequently underlies them in the 

 [Am. Inst.] 11 



