On the Improvement and Management of Soils. 53 
thirty or forty cart loads of which, dug and spread upon the sur- 
face of each acre, will form a most effective and permanent im- 
provement. On the other hand, clayey soils are improved by the 
application of sand, gravel, and exposure to winter frosts. 
Vegetable or peaty soils frequently rest on beds of clay, which, 
when burnt and intermixed, form a good soil. These modes of 
improvement, where practicable, are the most proper, and although 
perhaps in the first instance attended with considerable expense, 
can not fail ultimately to prove the most beneficial. Before we 
proceed to the consideration of the application of particular sub- 
stances, as manures, it may not be improper to take a view of 
the natural state of vegetation in those vast tracts where every 
operation necessary to perpetuate a never failing produce, in- 
variably takes place without the aid of the hand of man. 
By art and industry, the augmenting and improvement of vege- 
table productions are truly great; yet, when ever w'e exceed the 
limits of natural laws some equivalent redress must be substituted, 
or our pursuits will soon terminate in the entire destruction of 
that subject on w^hich we repose. 
Any man, with very little skill or knowledge, may fell trees, 
plant, hoe, cut hay, raise grain, and rear cattle; and so long as 
the virgin fertility of his soil lasts, he may do very well. At 
length, however, that becomes exhausted. The store of provision 
for the nourishment of plants, which had been accumulating per- 
haps for centuries, while the land was in woods, by the annual 
decay of vegetables and the leaves of trees, is at length spent. 
It is impossible to survey the uncultivated wilderness without 
admiring the wonderful energies that must there be returned in 
the soil. The majestic pine, the stately oak, with the great va- 
riety of other inhabitants of the forest, seem to mock the idea of 
receiving aid from the hand of man; and when the stately pro- 
ductions are removed by the hardy woodman, instead of finding 
the soil exhausted, it is generally found replete with every nutri- 
tive principle. The means by which the soil is here capable of 
supporting vegetation are extremely obvious; every material in- 
gredient extracted by the vegetable products are again faithfully 
