HORTICULTURAL REPOSITORY. 



25 



and what still aggravates this evil, is the blind 

 prejudice which seems rivetted in the minds of 

 most people, that dry sandy soils cannot but produce 

 the driest and best flavored roots. When we come to 

 treat particularly on this valuable vegetable, we shall 

 be under the necessity of showing that dry sandy soils 

 in this country prove the very bane of the potatoe. 



Yeo-ctable or peaty soils are to be met with less mix- 

 ture of any of the other elements of soils, than either 

 the sandy or clayey, being often found many feet deep 

 of entire decayed vegetable matter; in which state they 

 are denominated peat moss, and arc more proper for 

 being used as an article of fuel, than to be applied to 

 (lie purposes of horticulture. Besides, the occurrences 

 of such soils in this country being confined to very rare 

 local situations, their management,. in order to fit them 

 for culture, is of less consequence. "When they are not 

 very deep, and the substrata substantial or clayey, they 

 may be rendered fertile by intermixture, and the appli- 

 cation of lime ; by burning ; or removal entirely by 

 means of water, where it can be employed as canals to 

 carry it off. 



Clayey soils are extremely different from the peaty, 

 and when they approach to pure clay, are very un- 

 favorable to vegetation ; yet there are but few instan- 

 ces, and these confined to very circumscribed situa- 

 tions. Where they are thus to be met with, some con- 

 siderable portion of sand is generally mixed with the 

 clayey soils ; and they possess this advantage over all 

 ■other soils, that the more and longer they are employed 

 in cultivation, the better they become. Several very 

 important vegetables also thrive well on very strong 

 clayey soils, such as wheat and cabbage, &c. But in 

 order to render such soils congenial to the growth of 

 most culinary vegetables, they require plenty of 

 labor and light opening manures. Yet the possessors 

 of such soils ought never to be discouraged, for they are 

 far preferable to those of a dry sandy texture. One 

 acre of a strong clayey soil well labored, will produce 

 double the quantity of vegetables to the dry sandy soils ; 

 and their produce never surfers by the droughts of sum- 

 mer, provided the soil be duly stirred and kept mode- 

 rately free and loose ; and this is in the power of the 

 hand of man to perform : but in dry seasons no art or 

 ingenuity can save them from the drooping verdure of 

 the burning sands. 



We now come to consider that important portion of 

 soils where a tolerable degree of mixture of all the ele- 

 mentary constituents are found blended together, and 

 which are generally denominated loamy. It is here 

 that with the least degree of expense, we can cultivate 

 successfully the greatest variety of vegetable produc- 

 tions. A considerable portion of the soil onthis island, 

 and for many miles to the eastward along the Sound, 

 consists of the very best kind of loam, being a substan- 

 tial intermixture of clay and sand, with rather an infe- 



rior portion of vegetable matter. I have cultivated to 

 great advantage, different grades of this soil, in various 

 situations, to a distance of sixty miles to the eastward 

 of this city. Where the black vegetable matter exceeds, 

 the soil is easier labored, and rather earlier ; but the 

 fine strong yellow loams are golden treasures to the 

 citizens of America ; and what is of singular impor- 

 tance, the soils of almost all elevated situations, are of 

 this stamp, and capable of producing every thing ne- 

 cessary for the food of man and beast. Most histori- 

 ans estimate as of great value the fertility of low 

 grounds and valleys, which they represent as being 

 vastly enriched at the expense of all the high grounds 

 in their vicinity. I have travelled hundreds of miles, 

 through very hilly countries to the westward of Cats- 

 kill, for the chief purpose of observing the quality of 

 the soil and its natural productions : and most candidly 

 confess that in very few instances could I discover any 

 just grounds for the support of such doctrine. The 

 lands throughout the whole county of Delaware in this 

 state, are a continued labyrinth of hills and valleys, but 

 the soil and productions on all their high grounds, are 

 far superior to those bare gravelly strips of low land, 

 that are every where entwined around the bases of their 

 stately and substantial hills. But let us only take a 

 view of our own island, and compare the soil of the low 

 lands about Greenwich with that of Murray's hill, 

 above the sunfish pond ; let any one examine the no- 

 ble soil around the country seat of Mr. Ogden, Mr. 

 Murray, and several others in that neighborhood, and 

 they will there find just grounds for elevating iheir-es- 

 timation of eminences. But let us proceed still 

 higher to Hamilton square, and compare the soil of 

 that (which is nearly the highest on the island,) with 

 the low, sandy plains about Harlaem, and the con- 

 trast will appear the most decisively in favor of those 

 lands on elevated situations. I would not, however, 

 wish to be understood as insinuating that all high lands 

 are of the best soil. I know there are tracts where 

 both the high and low are poor and gravelly ; but know- 

 ing the great superiority of stiff soils to those of the 

 sandy, gravelly texture, I could not let slip this oppor- 

 tunity of doing justice to those situations where I have 

 generally found a full proportion of those valuable in- 

 gredients that many theorists would make us believe 

 so easily escape to their favorite valleys. It is true, 

 nothing can be more plausible than the idea of success- 

 ive rains washing from lofty hills great part of those 

 ingredients which constitute the surface of their soil. 

 The doctrine of the inestimable worth of valleys fol- 

 lows of course ; and that this in some instances, is in 

 some degree the case, there is little doubt ; but whoev- 

 er will take the pains to examine such situations impar- 

 tially, cannot fail to discover considerable difficulty in 

 endeavoring to reconcile this very popular theory with 

 actual facts. The vast inequalities of surface thai: 



