Indications of Fcrtilifyj or Barrenness of Soils. 5"? 
smoothj not ragged and loose, such will indicate a soil too tenacious 
to be fertile. Of course, much will depend on the weather, and 
whether the land has been recently ploughed. I have assumed 
the land lo have been lately ploughed, and the state of the soil to 
to be a medium between wet and dr}-. 
Fertile lands generally plough clean, and the surface of the 
furrow, when turned over, retains a shining, glossy appearance, 
not occupvina: the entire surface, but intercepted by cracks and 
fissures, which show that the consistency is of a medium kind, 
between sand and clav, with sufficient adhesive power to retain 
moisture, and sufficient porosity to allow of such moisture being 
transfused through the soil, and so equalized that plants and vege- 
tables growing thereon may be benefited to the grealest extent 
possible. 
In arable districts there is a kind of accidental barrenness, 
occasionally produced bv mismanagement, and sometimes it has its 
origin in the want of draining. W(r call it accidental, because it 
is frequently in operation only for a season. A difficulty may 
arise as to whether lands found in this slate are to be deemed 
barren. Lands of good texture and naturally fertile are sometimes 
so harassed, by taking a long continued succession of corn crops, 
without returning manure, as to be reduced to a state of unpro- 
ductiveness. Such lands appear, to the superficial observer, to 
be barren, when they are only ap})arently so : unproduct!\ e it is 
true, but only so for a time, until a judicious manager, with little 
more than his common farm resources, effects one revolution of a 
proper svstem of crops, and the soil will be restored to its natural 
state, and ready to receive improvement from his future exertions. 
That state of barrenness which operates only for a season arises 
from land having been ploughed, sown, and harrowed, at an 
improper season, or under unfavourable circumstances. This 
happens generally when the land is too wet to be sown. The 
surface is worked into a mortar by the harrows, and the soil, con- 
sisting of clay with some sand, afterwards becom.es baked in the 
sun and forms a stiff hard crust, which is very difficult to reduce 
and pulverize by the application of the \me. 1 have seen lands 
really fertile when so managed, which have run together and set 
on the surface like cement, and the crops, in consequence, have 
been very deficient. 
III.— VEGETATION. 
Indications of Barrenness. 
The quantity and quality of the natural vegetable productions 
of any pasture-land are not only the principal guides in judging 
