SOILS. 



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A gravelly soil is one made up in greater part of email 

 I' Ones, pebbles, decomposed rock, &c. ; such soils, as a 

 ^^YLQVdl thing, are unfit for fruit trees, unless gre^t labor 

 is incurred in trenching, deepening, and mixing with 

 clay, muck, &c., of opposite characters. 



A loamy soil is one we hear a great deal about, and may 

 l>e understood in various ways. It may be considered a 

 mixture of equal parts of sandy, clayey, and vegetable soil. 

 It is neither so light as the sandy, on the one hand, nor 

 so tenacious as clay on the other ; and, as a general thing, 

 contains such elements, and is of such a texture, as to ren- 

 der it eligible for all ordinary purposes of cultivation, 

 and especially so for fruit trees. Loamy soils are spoken 

 of as sandy loams^ when sand forms a large ingredient, 

 say one half of their composition ; gravelly^ when pretty 

 largely mixed with small stones ; calcareous^ when lime 

 is found in them. 



Calcareous or chalky soils have a large amount of lime 

 mixed with the other ingredients of which they are com° 

 posed. All th« laji^s in limestone districts are of this 

 character, and, as a general thing, are well adapted to 

 fruit culture. 



Peaty soil consists chiefly of vegetable mould from de- 

 cayed marsh plants, in low, wet places. It is unj&t, in 

 itself, for fruit trees, but is valuable for improving both 

 light and heavy soils. 



Alluvial soils are composed of decomposed vegeta- 

 ble substances, the sediment of rivers, and materials 

 washed down from neighboring hills ; the valleys of all 

 our rivers and streams are composed of this, and it is the 

 richest of all soils. Fruit trees in such soils make a rank, 

 vigoroiis growth, but they are not so hardy nor so fruit- 

 ful, nor is the fruit so high flavored as on soils with more 

 sand, clay, or gi^vel, and' less vegetable mould. 



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