4 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
IMPROVEMENT OF SANDY SOILS. 
The Hon. W. Clark, of Northampton, 
has been the great pioneer in the improve- 
ment of sandy soils, and from the suc- 
cessful results he has achieved, we may 
fairly class him among the great agricul- 
tural reformers of the present day. He 
has already given to the public the theory 
of his operations, which we hope to find 
room to lay before our readers at some fu- 
ture time. Our object now is simply to 
give his practice, and after our farmers 
have begun the good work of reclaiming 
their almost barren wastes, it will he a 
pleasure for them to look into the modus 
operayidi^ and see the reasons of their 
success. There are three essential fea- 
tures in this practice, and the simultane- 
ous adoption of each is essential to effect 
the desired object. The first is the fre- 
quent and thorough use of the roller; the 
second, a constant covering of crops on 
the ground; the third is the introduction 
of clover and grass as a fertilizer. To 
illustrate this, we give the history of a 
single field of some forty acres of worn- 
out sandy soil, in the vicinity of N. This 
field was purchased by Mr. C. some eight 
or ten years since for nine dollars per 
acre, while the fertile bottom lands, on the 
other side of the towm, would sell readily 
for $150 to $200. His object was first 
to get a crop of corn if possible, and the 
land being too poor for this, he carried on 
to it a moderate quantity of peat or swamp 
muck, which was found in the low places 
on the same field. We may observe in 
passing, this peat and muck exist to an 
almost unlimited extent throughout New 
England, and we consider it of vastly 
more intrinsic value to the community 
th^n all the gold mines that have dazzled 
the eyes of our Southern neighbors for 
the last fifteen years. With this dressing, 
say of fifteen to thirty loads to the acre, 
the whole cost of which consists simply 
in digging and throwing into heaps, to be 
drained, and acted on by the atmosphere, 
after which it is carried either by carts or 
sleds in winter on to the adjacent ground; 
the land is then ploughed, and whatever 
scurf, sand grass, rushes, mosses, pusseys 
and briars there may be on the land are 
turned under, and such is the digestibility 
of the soil, all these raw' materials are at 
once converted into humus or geine as 
food for the required plants. This sandy 
soil has the stomach of an ostrich, and if 
it cannot, as that voracious biped has the 
credit of doing, digest old shoes, iron 
spikes, and junk bottles, it can dissolve 
and convert into vegetable chyle, w'hatev- 
er organized matter is given to it. The 
effect of this comparatively slight dress- 
ing yielded a first crop of some thirty 
bushels of corn to the acre, enough to pay 
for the first cost of the land, and the w^holc 
expense of producing it. But while the 
corn w'as growing, say from the 20th of 
July to the 10th of August, rye wdth red 
and white clover seed Avas soaati, and the 
corn being so planted as to admit of har- 
rowing tw'o Avays, or even four if neces- 
sary, it AA^as AA^ell got in Avith the harroAV, 
and the ground being amply protected by 
the corn during the sultry Aveather of this 
season, the neAv seed took a vigorous 
start, and as soon as the corn Avas some- 
Avhat matured, it Avas cut and carried off 
the ground, and the nerv groAvth then had 
the entire possession. The roller Avas 
then thoroughly applied, as also in the 
folloAAung spring. The early soAving 
gives strength to the roots of both rye and 
clover, and renders hazard of AAunter kill- 
ing either, especially the clover, much 
less. When from any cause he is pre- 
vented from soAving the clover early, it is 
omitted till early in the following spring; 
a postpQnement that should be aA’^oided 
Avhen possible, as it thus loses a year’s 
time, requiring another season to mature. 
The rye is cut the folloAving summer, 
w'-hen the clover is suffered^ to remain, 
shedding its seed upon the ground for a 
successwe crop. The folloAving season, 
if in a proper condition, it is again put 
into corn or rye according to its fertility, 
and the course is again rencAved. The 
land, how'ever, usually requires an addi- 
tional season in clover, and sometimes 
more, to give the requisite fe^-tility. Mr. 
C. shoAved us a field, Avhich from the ori- 
ginally poor condition described, AA'ithout 
the addition of any manure or peat or 
muck, has produced him five crops in se- 
ven years, the last, Avhich he had but just 
taken off, yielding seventeen bushels to 
the acre. This, it Avill be readily admit- 
ted, is a large crop for poor land, and 
much beyond the average yield in Ncav 
E ngland. The groAvth of the clover on 
this field, of this spring’s soAving, w'as 
promising in the highest degree, and as 
evenly set as in the best land, gwing ba- ery 
promise of a large crop the next season, 
Avhich of course is designed to be added 
to the soil for its future improvement. 
When the land is first put into use, (for 
Mr. C. has several other similar fields 
which have been variously treated, though 
ahvays on the same principles,) and it is 
too poor to produce a paying crop of corn, 
and he has not time to add the muck, he 
turns under the surface vegetation, and 
puts on a crop of rye, ahv'ays accompa- 
nying this with the clover, and after one 
year’s crop from this last, he never fails 
in a fair yield of corn. On a field thus 
treated, without any dressing of muck, he 
got tAventy-seA'en bushels of corn per acre 
for the first crop, and after an interval of 
another season, obtained thirty-three bush- 
els on the same land, shoAving a decided 
increase in the productiveness of the soil. 
A slight dressing of plaster is generally, 
though not ahvays, used, and never ex- 
ceeds half a bushel to the acre. Mr. C. 
admits that more plaster might be useful; 
Ave think one or tAvo bushels per acre 
would be applied Avith decided advantage, 
but it is purchased at a high price, about 
$10 per ton, and as economy and a self- 
sustaining policy has been a prominent 
principle in this system, this is all that has 
thus far been afforded. The muck Avould 
in all cases be a valuable, remunerating 
addition, but this he has not always the 
time to give, and at the prices he has paid 
for his land, he can afford to leave it once 
in tAvo or three years in clover, by Avhich 
it is renovated, and for the present per- 
haps this may be the most judicious plan. 
As lands become dearer, hoAvev':r, Avhich 
they are rapidly doing under this man- 
agement, they being noAv Avorth $20 to 
$30 per acre, of no better quality than 
such as he bought a feAv years since at 
$8 to $12, the policy of m.aRuring AA'ill 
become more expedient, though the ra- 
pidly improving nature of this system Avill 
give greater efficacy to the cloA'er crop as 
a fertilizer. 
It is surprising to see the eieA'ated noles 
and barren planes, that so lately exhibited 
nothing but a craAvling sand, by the ope- 
rations of the clover roots in this other- 
AA'ise impracticable material, gradually 
changing its inadhesive character to a 
firmly connected mass, sho’.viug a furrow 
slice that AA'ould gratify the most practised 
eye. Mr. Clark acknoAvledges his sur- 
prise at the facility Avith Avhich the clover 
takes, and attributes it mainly to the use 
of the roller. We are inclined to concede 
much to that instrument, but think for his 
Avhite and other clover he is greatly in- 
debted to the plaster. Of this we have 
more to say hereafter. 
We observe the Avoodchucks, Avho art 
arrant epicures and gourmands in their se- 
lection of esculents, and especially of 
SAveet and abundant clover fields, are thor- 
oughly colonized OA-er all the fields of Mn 
C. They folloAV him, as our politicians 
do the successful candidate of 'executive 
dispensations for John Randolpli’s seven 
principles, the fiA'e Iouats and tAA'o fishes. 
They snuff his green patches of trefoils, 
and instanter abandon the poverty-stricken 
fields of his unthrifty neighbors. His 
crop of Avoodchucks, though not as im- 
portant as the shoe crop at Lynn, may 
soon be Avell AVorth the harvesting. 
Mr. C. has not pursued this cultivation 
sufficiently long to have matured a sys- 
tem of rotation, Avhich, hcAA'cver, he vir- 
tually practices AAdth some A'ariations, from 
his OAvm judgment. A little more expe- 
rience Avill enable him to determine AA'heth- 
er a crop can be taken more advantageous- 
ly every second or every third year; but 
Ave are satisfied wdth a moderate dressing 
for the corn, the rotation might be of three 
years’ duration, affording ahcrnately corn, 
rye, and clover, the last to be added entire 
Avhen dry, to the soil, for its improvement. 
Green crops are never used as improvers, 
they ahvays being alloAved to mature be- 
fore turning under. Plaster should al- 
ways be added, unless ashes or lime can 
be more economically applied; but the 
former is limited in supply, and die latter 
is to be had only at a price Avhich Aidll ef- 
fectually prevent its use in diis region. 
