THE CARE OF THE SOIL. 



25 



Having briefly enumerated the unkindly features of this class of 

 soil, and what we must avoid doing in order not to aggravate them, we 

 will now pass on to consider the treatment to be adopted to improve 

 or correct them. 



Drainage. — The first and fundamental condition of improvement is 

 good drainage. We all know that if a heavy soil is badly drained it 

 is almost impossible to work it properly. Water " puddles " the 

 clay — the fine particles are obviously easily separated and carried by 

 water and evenly distributed over the mass of the soil. In such a soil 

 drainage is the first consideration. A badly drained soil is always wet 

 and unkind in the winter, sets in clods, cracks, and is the first to suffer 

 from drought in the summer. It is impossible in the scope of this 

 paper to deal with this important question of drainage, but all who 

 have reason to suspect that their soil is " water-logged " are advised 

 to have inspection-pits dug about 3 feet deep wherever water is 

 suspected, and to watch whether the water stands in them and does 

 not freely get away. If drainage is necessary, pipe drains are the 

 best, but box, bush, or stone drains are better than nothing and are 

 easily made in a garden. In bigger areas, and especially wet pastures, 

 great benefit may be obtained by the use of the " Mole draining- 

 plough." Let your main drain deliver to the lowest point in the field 

 or garden, and remember not to run your minor drains down the 

 slope but across it. This is a most important point. If you drain 

 down the slope you merely drain the soil just over-lying the drain, 

 but if you drain across the slope you catch the water between the 

 drains. 



Liming. — The next point is liming. The action of lime on heavy 

 soils is fully explained in the article dealing with this subject 

 published in the Journal of the Society (vol. xlii.). It is sufficient 

 for us to remember here that lime flocculates the " colloids " in a 

 heavy soil, that it collects them together and prevents their distribu- 

 tion throughout the bulk of the soil, which, as we have seen, is our 

 primary object. It is therefore obvious that in the care and manage- 

 ment of a heavy soil liming must be resorted to from time to time. 



Manuring. — The next consideration is the manuring of such a 

 soil. In a paper headed "The Respective Values of Organic and In- 

 organic Manures," published in the Journal (vol. xli. p. 217), the 

 mechanical effect of organic manures on various soils is dealt with, 

 and it is pointed out that dung, shoddy, wool waste, and other bulky 

 manures, open out a clay soil and let in the air, and are consequently 

 of great benefit. It is also seen that humus flocculates the " colloids " 

 and greatly improves the working of heavy soils, and that therefore 

 organic manures should be used. An excellent instance of this effect 

 of humus on clay soils may be seen in a ploughed-up pasture where 

 even on the heaviest clays the soil is softer to the tread and breaks 

 down more easily than is the case on the neighbouring arable field. 

 Some mineral manures, such as superphosphate and sulphate of 

 ammonia, owing to their acid residues, have a bad mechanical effect 



