268 



CULINARY OR KITCHEN GARDEN. 



any earthy soil into a loam, as is clearly exem- 

 plified in the vicinity of large towns." 



Loamy soils are by far the most valuable of 

 any, and are also the most numerous. Hence 

 we have clay loams and sandy loams, which are 

 synonymous terms for strong loams and light 

 loams — the former containing a larger propor- 

 tion of clay, and the latter of sand. Closely 

 allied to these are gravelly loams, which, with 

 sandy loams, are exceedingly valuable, and 

 when unaccompanied with iron are amongst the 

 more useful of all soils. They neither retain 

 too much water, nor do they exclude the sun's 

 heat. They are evidently of alluvial formation, 

 and exist most generally by the margins of 

 rivers, or in the bottoms of valleys. We have 

 also fibrous loams, much sought after by the 

 plant cultivator; as well as virgin or maiden 

 loam, equally in request. The former of these 

 is valued for the abundance of the fibrous roots 

 of plants it contains, which, as they decompose, 

 afford food to the living plant ; while the latter 

 is procured from ground that has never been 

 subjected to cultivation ; and although a small 

 portion only of organisable matter is found in it, 

 still it is perhaps of all others the best suited to 

 horticultural purposes. 



Gravelly soils vary considerably in degree — that 

 is, from absolute sand combined with small stones, 

 to gravelly loam. The former and its nearest 

 allies consist almost entirely of small stones and 

 particles of silicious matter, and are barren and 

 unproductive ; the latter of fragments of rock or 

 water-worn stones, varying from the size of a 

 large pea to a hazel-nut, or even larger, inter- 

 mixed with sand and with more or less of loam 

 or vegetable matter. Most of the soils in this 

 section are open and porous, and give off mois- 

 ture very quickly ; and on this account, together 

 with the heat they absorb, are apt to burn in 

 warm dry seasons. Such soils seldom suffer 

 from wet, unless when very shallow and on a 

 retentive subsoil. If unmixed with iron, and 

 containing a sufficient quantity of loam or vege- 

 table matter, gravelly soils are valuable in the 

 garden, yielding early spring crops, and tending, 

 from their dryness, to maintain them during the 

 frosts of winter. They are not, however, in 

 general adapted for fruit trees or fruit-bearing 

 plants. The small stones of which gravelly 

 soils are so much composed tend greatly to in- 

 crease their temperature, and act as better con- 

 ductors of heat than the finer particles of sand; 

 but although such soils are more easily heated 

 than sands, they are cooled also in the same 

 proportion. Gravelly soils, when loam and 

 vegetable matter predominate, are, next to light 

 or moderately light loams, amongst the very 

 best garden soils. 



Peaty or mossy soils. — These are evidently of 

 vegetable origin, and as they contain a super- 

 abundance of vegetable matter, often in an 

 inert state, they require the agency of other 

 matter to break them down and fit them for 

 the growth of plants. Peaty soils in any of 

 their modifications are seldom employed in the 

 formation of garden soils, although, in the state of 

 that known amongst plant cultivators as " heath 

 mould " or " sandy peat," they are indispensable 



in good culture. Such peat is found, for the most 

 part, on the sides of mountain ranges, and near 

 the tops of secondary hills, and is composed of a 

 basis of black soil, the result of decayed vege- 

 tation of the lowest order of plants, intermixed 

 with the remains of heath, Caluna vulgaris, Sec, 

 and abounding in small white sparkling particles 

 of silica, or fragments of primitive rocks, and 

 sometimes also of small fragments of the more 

 recently formed white sandstone. It is found 

 in shallow beds, seldom many inches deep, evi- 

 dently the accumulation of ages, partly trans- 

 ported thither by rain and melting snow from 

 a higher altitude, and partly by the decomposi- 

 tion of vegetation. To be useful for plants, this 

 soil must be free of oxide of iron, which often 

 abounds in such formations. Turfy peat is the 

 result of semi-decayed vegetables, various species 

 of Musci, Juneece, Cyperacece, &c. ; and when 

 dried moderately in the sun and broken down, 

 is valuable for most plants, and maybe modified 

 by the addition of sand or loam to suit the ma- 

 jority in cultivation. Black and inert peat is 

 in its natural state totally useless, and can only 

 be rendered useful by burning, charring, roasting, 

 draining, reducing in volume and shape, and by 

 a large admixture of sharp silicious sand. That 

 from the sea-beach is valuable, as carrying with 

 it a considerable amount of saline matter. Peat 

 bogs, which have been drained and cultivated, 

 contain often 80 to 90 per cent of organic 

 matter. 



The origin of peat, when in masses, opens 

 up a broad page in the historical changes which 

 a country has undergone. Often under 10 

 or 15 feet of this substance, and extending 

 over hundreds of acres, may be not only dis- 

 covered a rich argillaceous soil, but also the 

 marks of former cultivation ; in other eases the 

 same soil, in which are still to be found the 

 roots of oaks and other trees, while remains of 

 their trunks and branches are scattered through 

 the superincumbent mass, and these of a size 

 with which our present largest trees are as mere 

 saplings, and, strange to say, often at altitudes 

 where the whole art of man could not get the 

 same species to grow at the present day. Such 

 magazines of almost neglected matter might be 

 advantageously employed by being transported 

 to light sandy or gravelly soils, in which there 

 is a great deficiency of vegetable matter. Their 

 ashes also form valuable stimulants, and assist 

 in the germination of seeds on all, but more 

 especially on strong clayey soils. Celery, pota- 

 toes, and carrots are almost the only garden 

 crops that seem to prefer an improved peaty 

 soil. Fruit trees seldom succeed in such, al- 

 though many shrubs and American trees do. 



Subsoils exercise a considerable influence on 

 the soil above them. Thus a clay subsoil, being 

 impervious to water, renders the surface soil, 

 of whatever nature it may be, wet and cold. A 

 gravelly or porous subsoil tends greatly to dry, 

 and of course render warmer, the surface- soil, 

 even should it be clay; and when a porous soil 

 rests upon a gravelly subsoil, scarcely any de- 

 gree of humidity can injure it. A rocky Sub- 

 soil may be either drying or retentive, according 

 to its structure ; " a massive subsoil keeping 



