202 Causes of Fertility or Barrenness of Soils. 
a scanty living for his flock, the clay farmer is filling his pockets 
with the produce of his fat stock, turned out of his pastures often 
without the aid of corn, and not unfrequently tumbling over, that 
is, selling for double what they cost the previous winter. From 
these considerations we trust it will appear that the cultivation 
of good strong land often offers the most favourable investment 
for capital ; and that as more liberal ideas and sounder principles 
of agricultural economy become general, the value of such land 
will be considerably increased. Clay land requires more capital 
to stock and work it than lighter soils, and this will prove an 
objection to those who pride themselves upon the number rather 
than the quality of their acres ; but we must hope that this 
absurd vanity is fast giving place to more rational ideas. 
The oat crop will often grow well on heavy land, and is not 
unfrequently taken after the wheat crop — a system which science 
condemns, but practice often finds remunerative. Still it is an 
uncertain crop, depending much more upon season than wheat. 
It seems to like a soil containing large quantities of vegetable 
matter in a state of decomposition, combined with a sufficient 
amount of mineral ingredients ; consequently it is almost always 
the first crop grown on new land, often put in as soon as the 
sod is turned. It is, however, better practice to fallow the land 
first, liming, and sowing potatoes, rape, or turnips, feeding the 
latter off, and thus consolidating the surface ; then drilling in the 
oats, keeping the land as firm as possible. The oat crop requires 
less mineral matter than the wheat ; the straw is more flaggy and 
less strong, and contains a larger proportion of organic matter. 
This is perhaps the reason why it succeeds where wheat would 
almost certainly fail. The wheat crop requires more silica, phos- 
phoric acid, and alkalies than either oats or barley, and this 
may in some measure explain its particular habitat. 
Barley grows well on calcareous and loamy soils, but is uncer- 
tain and of a coarse quality on clay land. Formerly it was thought 
almost impossible to grow it on stiff soils ; but the effects of deep 
drainage have dispelled this fallacy, and in many cases very 
bulky crops of indifferent quality have been obtained. Still, when 
the land is good enough for wheat, it will not be often taken, as 
it is less remunerative, and appears to injure the next wheat crop 
by loosening the soil too much. Barley likes a dry porous soil, 
and is well adapted for sandy and light calcareous soils following 
the root crop consumed on the land. Beans require a deep, strong, 
and yet dry soil, containing a certain portion of lime : the soils 
on many of the oolite beds are well adapted to grow this crop. 
Many people consider it an exhausting crop, and of course, inas- 
much as it is a grain crop, it takes a good deal out of tlie land ; 
but the roots run down when the soil is open and feed on the 
