THE WHEAT CTJLTURIST. 



219 



on some kinds of land, it will not pay to cart muck for- 

 ty rods. Experiments must be made, to determine 

 when muck will operate as a valuable fertilizer, and when 

 it will not. 



The very act of exposure of this swamp muck, has 

 caused an evolution of carbonic acid gas : that decom- 

 poses the silicates of potash in the sand ; the potash con- 

 verts the insoluble into soluble manure, and lo ! a crop. 

 The growing crop adds its power to the geine. If all the 

 long series of experiments under Yon Yoght, in Ger- 

 many, are to be believed, confirmed as they are by re- 

 peated trials by our own agriculturists, it is not to be 

 doubted, that every inch of every small knoll, on every 

 farm, may be changed into a soil in thirteen years, of 

 half the number of inches of good mould. 



Manuring Sandy Soils foe Wheat. 



In the summer of 1867, 1 was exploring certain parts 

 of South Jersey, at Weymouth ; and I found on the 

 farm of Mr. S. Colwell, that excellent crops of wheat 

 had been growing on light, sandy loam soils, where a 

 man could paw a hole a foot deep with the heel of his 

 boot, with little difficulty. Mr. Colwell stated that 

 his system of management was as follows, in preparing 

 the ground for the crop just alluded to : A liberal dress- 

 ing of barn-yard manure and muck was applied to the 

 land, ploughed in, and Indian corn planted. The next 

 season Indian corn was sowed for feeding domestic 

 animals. In autumn the ground was ploughed and 

 winter wheat drilled in. As nature has made abundant 

 provision for the draining of the cultivable fields in this 

 part of the State, the freezing and thawing of the soil 



