304 
IMPROVING LIGHT SOILS. 
can tell whether they will grow, and if they seem 
to be doing well, cut off the stock above the graft, 
and there will be no more trouble but to keep them 
well trimmed. It is a very efficient and simple 
method, and any one who tries it will be pleased. 
7 I have been giving attention to fruit culture for 
eight years, and have quite a variety of apples, 
pears,and peaches. I find the Bartlett pear to be 
the very best I have, a very healthy and vigorous 
growth, bears early and seems to be free from 
all disease. Finer fruit than I have at this time 
on a small tree you could not find anywhere. I 
have examined fruit in the markets of all the 
northern cities, and never saw better. The apples 
that do best here are all the June varieties, the 
horse apple, maiden's blush, Bevan apple, fall 
pippin, and I have one called the Davis apple, pur- 
chased at Hatch & Co.'s nursery, Vicksburg, that 
is fine, ripening very late, and will keep through 
the winter. 
Last spring. I applied lime and ashes around all 
my apple trees. By the application of a plenty of 
these, with proper care, we can have fine fruit. 
Perhaps it is not known by many of the readers 
of the Agriculturist, that nearly all seedling pear 
trees that have thorns on the limbs are barren and 
will not produce fruit. E. J. Capell. 
Centreville, Miss., July 23 d, 1849. 
IMPROVING- LIGHT SOILS. 
Since the time, when in company with yourself 
and other invited guests, I went on an agricultural 
excursion over that part of Long Island contiguous 
to the railroad, I have often thought of the most 
speedy and economical mode for the cultivation of 
the vast number of acres that now lie there in a 
barren and neglected state. At the time, I was 
very well satisfied, in my own mind, that much, at 
least, of these lands might be made available ; and 
the opportunities of seeing the successful efforts 
of others, with what I have done myself in im- 
proving light soils, has confirmed me in the opinion, 
that they could be made available, and where, now. 
there is little or nothing of value growing, good 
crops could be produced. 
The question arises, what is the cause of the 
barrenness of these lands ? The prevailing opinion 
is, that they are destitute of the elements of fer- 
tility, that they require an abundant supply of 
manure, and that they are so leechy that they 
retain manure but a very short time. Chemical 
analysis does not point out that they are entirely 
destitute of nourishment for plants, but that they 
contain many substances which are found in pro- 
ductive soils. In fact, the lands are so similar in 
quality to the soil found in many sections, acknow- 
ledged to be tolerably fair, that we ought, perhaps, 
to look for other reasons than the absence of some 
particular elements. 
In the neighborhood of Poughkeepsie, I have 
seen what I often observed in the city of New 
York, when cellars and sewers were dug, and 
where streets were opened, that in making perpen- 
dicular cuts in the soil, of greater or less depth, 
you could have an excellent opportunity for exam- 
ining the formations of the different strata of earth. 
On my own farm, where I can raise two good 
crops of garden vegetables in a year, and any other 
crop in its perfection, and in several other places, I 
have had the opportunity of seeing, where the 
earth was removed in some instances to the depth 
of twenty feet or more, that the strata were first 
composed of several inches of surface soil, next 
yellow, sandy loam, and then layers of sand or 
gravel for the whole depth removed. Why is it 
that such lands as these are not considered barren? 
Why do they retain their fertility for years, merely 
receiving the droppings of the cattle when pastured, 
with no other manure except the sod which is 
turned under in the course of the rotation, and 
occasionally by a dressing of plaster ? In every 
instance where I have examined such soils, the 
subsoil was found to be dense and compact; while 
other land examined, where the subsoil was light, 
loose, and shelving, it was very poor in quality, 
and much inclined to gully and wash. 
The plan which I have thought would answer 
for the first object is, to plow the ground early in 
the spring, when it is moist; when one furrow is 
turned, then, with a heavy roller, with a flange on 
it wide and deep enough for the purpose, the sub- 
soil could be compressed in that furrow. If marl, 
clay, swamp muck, or any stiff soil could be previ- 
ously deposited in the furrow, it would be a great 
benefit to apply it. After this, another furrow 
could be turned over the first, and so continued 
until the whole field is tilled. Many advantages, 
it appears to me, would arise from this course. It 
would be directly the reverse of subsoiling. It 
would give a subsoil where it imperfectly exists, 
while in subsoiling you break up one too tenacious. 
If the land leeches the manure, you would thus 
partially prevent it. If it loses it by capillary at- 
traction, you diminish the rapid passage of the 
moisture and gases by increasing the density of 
the subsoil. While some lands have been perma- 
nently injured by the subsoil plow, these would be 
as permanently improved ; for it would perhaps 
only require one operation, as the pressed soil 
would be below the reach of the plow, and its 
action upon it would render the subsoil rather 
harder than otherwise, whenever subsequently 
plowed. 
The covering of the surface is a system prac- 
tised with the best effects. Merely scattering over 
the soil with straw will often cause a luxuriant 
growth of clover on dry, sandy, and gravelly side 
hills and knolls. I have cut, this year, fine clover 
and Timothy grass from a part of my farm where 
nothing but mullens and light grass grew for years, 
and several attempts for seeding down were unsuc- 
cessful. I attribute the advantages in a great mea- 
sure to raising a crop of peas on the ground most 
exposed. After the field was prepared by proper 
cultivation, I thought it would be a good plan to 
sow it broadcast very early in the season. To 
insure the early and perfect vegetation of the peas, 
they might be soaked a few hours in a solution of 
guano, and then rolled in plaster previous to sow- 
ing. After they are sowed, a liberal quantity of 
guano should be applied, and then, the ground har- 
rowed and rolled. When the peas come to proper 
perfection, they might be fed off by hogs, after 
which the land should be immediately plowed and 
the remnants of the vines turned under, and the 
