SOIL. 



to be formed and prepared witli great attention to their 

 feveral ufes and intentions ; and where fruit-trees are to be 

 grown, particular care fhould be taken, that the borders 

 for fnch purpofes be fonned and made up to proper depths, 

 with fuitable materials, and upon proper kinds of fubllrata. 

 By fufficiently regarding thefe points, garden foils of proper 

 qualities, and fit for every purpofe, may moftly be provided 

 without much difficulty. 



The work of forming and compofing garden foils is by 

 far the moft cheaply, properly, and eafily performed at firlt 

 when the garden is laid out ; as, when done at an after pe- 

 riod, great injury and deftruftion are caufed in different 

 finilhed parts, and in various other places, by defacing and 

 cutting them up in the labour, and rendering their appear- 

 ance difgutting to the eye, though the bufinefs is ftill ca- 

 pable of being accompliflied without any very great difR- 

 culty or expence. In all cafes of this fort, whatever depth 

 of natural foil may be wanting to form the foils to the 

 proper depths or thickneffes, as fuggefted above, mnft be 

 fupplied, by conveying it into the garden from the neigh- 

 bouring lands or other fituations, where the proper kind is 

 to be met with in fufRcient quantity ; as it is rarely, or 

 never ad\gfeable to raife and mix up any great quantity of 

 the fub-foil, or bottom part, whatever its nature, texture, or 

 properties may be, with it. For, in many cafes, the foils of 

 gardens are greatly injured, or nearly ruined, by the improper 

 mixing of the fub-foil with the furface-mould. Level fpots 

 are feldom fo proper for gardens as others, as the foils of them 

 have rarely a dry bottom, and the draining of them, when ne- 

 ceflary, is a great deal more difficult, than where there is 

 fome degree of declivity. Where there is from a foot in 

 twelve, to that of a foot in thirty or forty feet, it vrill com- 

 monly fucceed pretty well ; but when about one foot in 

 twenty-five, it has the moft happy effeft in freeing the foil and 

 fub-foil from too much wetnefs. 



It is remarked by the " Scotch Forcing and Kitchen 

 Gardener," as a fortunate and defirable circumftance, that 

 in many inftances the different forts of foil are met with in 

 the fame acre or portion of ground, and that they (hould 

 never be wanting in the fame garden, but that where they 

 are naturally deficient, in this refpeft, in fuch fituations, re- 

 courfe mull be had to artificial means, in the manner that 

 has been already fuggefted, for providing and producing 

 them ; for the variety of vegetables which are to be culti- 

 vated in gardens require a variety of foils in them for their 

 produftion. It would, however, be perfeftly abfurd, it is 

 fuppofed, to conceive, that for every particular fort of ve- 

 getable there ftiould be a particular kind of foil formed and 

 prepared. The varieties of foil which are abfolutely ne- 

 ceffary in almoft any garden, may, it is thought, be con- 

 fined with propriety to the following, — ft rong clayey loam, 

 — light fandy loam, a compofition of one-fourth ftrong, 

 with three-fourths light loam, half ftrong and half light, and 

 one-fourth light and three-fourths ftrong ; the two firft 

 being obvioufly the grand or principal forts, and made to 

 form and compofe the whole of the others. Thefe, with the 

 proper and fuitable applications of manures to them, may, 

 it is believed, be rendered capable of producing any of the 

 known and commonly cultivated garden vegetables, in the 

 higheft ftate of perfeifion. 



This is probably, however, limiting them too much or 

 too narrowly, as though the principal forts of cuhnary 

 vegetables may be raifed upon them in an eafy and perfeift 

 manner, there are feveral kinds of plants grown in fuch fitu- 

 ations that require foils of other qualities to produce them 

 in perfeftion, and fome that cannot be grown at all without 

 thofe of quite a different nature. 



Garden foils, in many cafes, may be greatly and cheaplj 

 improved by very fimple means^ as by the properly drawing 

 awaj' and difcharging any over-degree of moifture, where 

 the bottom is wet, and the fub-foil of a cankering oclirey 

 quality ; and by fupplying and intimately mcorporating with 

 the foil, where it is of a very ftiff^ obitinate nature, fub- 

 ftances of the fmall gravel, pebbly, and (helly fea-fand, coal- 

 afh, lime-gravel, reduced brick-bat, biick-kiln a(h, moul- 

 deringchalk, and different other fimilar kinds. In cafes 

 where the foil is of a poor fandy, gravelly, or other quality 

 of fomewhat the lame defcription, the improvement is to be 

 effefted by fupplymg and intermixing clay, ftrong clayey 

 loam, fcourings of ditches found on clayey fub-foils, muddy 

 depofitions of fimilar fituations, fcrapings of muddy roads, 

 and other matters of the fame kind with them, in fuitable 

 proportions and an even manner. 



Where foils of the pure fandy, fea-fandy, or peat-earthy 

 kinds, are wanted, they are to be formed by the fupply of 

 thefe different forts of materials in the proper and neceflfary 

 proportions to fome part of the common foil of the garden, 

 as the cafe may be, without their being blended or united 

 with it. In all other cafes the bufinefs is to be accomplilhed 

 in fomewhat fimilar ways. 



It is a very common opinion among gardeners, that culi- 

 nary vegetables may be raifed and grown to the beft ad- 

 vantage, and in the fuUeft perfeftion, on what is denominated 

 netv, or rather frefti lands oV foil, and this is evidently proved 

 to be the cafe in a great number of inftances. The foil or 

 ground, in confequence of its benig exhaufted, or tuorn out, 

 as it is termed, is found incapable of producing certain kinds 

 of vegetables of the above nature ; not becaufe it is of x 

 poor or hungry nature or quality, or that it is wholly un- 

 fuitable for the production of them, having probably, at a 

 former period, produced them in an abundant manner, but on 

 account of, or from the furface foil having been fo long under 

 fuch crops without any fufficient or fuitable change. This 

 is, however, much lefs the cafe, in open field garden grounds, 

 than fuch as are inclofed for the purpofe of producing the 

 finer forts of fruit and vegetables. 



The inconvenience in thefe cafes is fuppofed to be capable 

 of being wholly removed, or greatly relieved, by trenching 

 the foil in a peculiar manner at proper periods, fo as to have 

 conftantly a new or frefh foil for the growth of fuch vege- 

 tables and fruits. See Rotation of Crops, and Trench- 

 ing. 



The foils of gardens in all cafes, except where they are 

 too light and friable, are capable of receiving much improve- 

 ment, by being fully laid up in fuch a manner as to expofe 

 the largeft poffible furface to the operation of the weather, 

 whenever they are unoccupied by crops, and efpecially during 

 the frofty periods of winter. On all ftiff, heavy, clayey, 

 loamy, and cankering gravelly foils, the improvement by 

 this means is very great, and ought never to be negledled. 

 On very light foils of the fandy fort, it (hould, however, be 

 very cautioufly employed. See Ridging up. 



The moft fuitable kinds of foil for the growth of different 

 forts of fruit-trees in gardens, are verv various according to 

 their nature and habits, but they all require that they ftiould 

 be of a fomewhat dry quality, as will be feen under their dif- 

 ferent proper heads. Where fruit-trees of the apple kind 

 are grown in fuch fituations, which (hould as rarely as pofli- 

 ble be the cafe, they fucceed in the beft manner, are the 

 moft healthy, and of the greateft durability in foils of the 

 brown loamy kind, which have a middling degree of con- 

 fiitence, and a depth of a foot and a half or more, refting 

 on a dry, fandy, or foft clayey bottom : they will, how- 

 ever, anfwer tolerably on any of the loamy forts of foil 



which 



