On Maiden, or Virgin, Soil. 397 



undecomposed organic substances accumulated in them. This 

 was eminently the case with the piece of nursery ground under 

 our care for a considerable period, some years ago, as noticed in 

 the article in the Gazette. There were four acres in that piece, 

 of as fine alluvial soil as could be wished for; containing a due 

 proportion of sand to entitle it to the name of light free soil, and 

 yet not so much as to be hurtful ; perhaps about 50 or 60 per 

 cent of sand, besides that united chemically with the alumina 

 and forming with it clay. It had been about forty years in culti- 

 vation as nursery ground before coming under my care; and in 

 the most sandy parts of the grounds had become so effete or in- 

 active, or what a Scotsman would term fuzzionless, so spent and 

 worn out, that no manure we put on it could renovate its lost 

 powers. The more clayey portions had not suffered so much, 

 but were very much deteriorated also. Even another field of 

 nursery ground on the other side of the river, though entitled to 

 the name of clayey, and not quite so long under cultivation, had 

 acquired a good deal of the same effete worn-out condition. The 

 more sandy portions especially, when broke and reduced into 

 small pieces, had, to a certain extent, the same fault as the other 

 piece of ground. It is necessary in ground under nursery 

 crops, especially where many seedlings are raised, to keep 

 the surface in a very minute state of pulverisation ; and, in the 

 oldest and most worn-out piece of nursery ground, the divided 

 particles of soil, in place of keeping in that state during the great- 

 est part of the summer (as good soil generally does unless the 

 rains are more than usually heavy and long continued), dissolved 

 into powder, and assumed the state of a loose incoherent mass, 

 in which neither capillary attraction nor atmospheric action had 

 its proper effect ; and ended in becoming, like peat soil, a nidus 

 or receptacle for mosses, the surface getting covered with a 

 coating of these plants, which thrive only where a vigorous 

 growth of other plants cannot be obtained. To remedy this, we 

 were in the habit every year of trenching a considerable portion 

 in the winter. We trenched two spadings and two shovelings 

 deep, burying about 1 ft. deep the black worn-out soil, and 

 bringing to the surface a brown hazel-coloured sandy loam, 

 which was sharp and active. The particles, though minutely 

 pulverised, preserved nearly that condition during the greater 

 part of the summer, especially if broken up and worked in dry 

 weather; the soil kept in a spongy state as broken, but the mi- 

 nute particles preserved their coherence, and retained the mois- 

 ture, heat, atmospheric air, and various substances deposited ; 

 food was retained, and chemical action promoted, and the plants 

 of consequence grew more vigorously. 



In all deep alluvial soils, this renewal by trenching will be 

 found of immense benefit to all surface-rooted plants, where the 



