66 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR, 
ing this kind of manure. But could they col- 
lect carefully all these matters, mix them with 
lime, plaster or gravel, till the odor was dispell- 
ed, and then carry the whole upon the fields!” 
“Already, in most of our great cities, the con- 
tents of the privies are used lor forming pou- 
drette; this pulverulent product is sought lor by 
our agriculturists, who acknowledge its good 
etfects, let us hope that, becoming more en- 
lightened, they will employ the fecal matcei it- 
self, as being more rich in nutritive principles, 
and abounding equally in salts; they can easily 
govern and moderate the too powerful action of 
this, by fermentation, or what is still better, by 
mixing it with plaster, earth, and other absor- 
bents, to correct the odor. — Chaptal,p. 62. 
PURE ANIMAL MATTER. 
All animal matter, such as the carcases of 
dead animals, unmerchantable fish, the refuse 
of the slaughter house, the relics of the kitchen 
and the waste of the tan yard, the shoe shop, the 
carding mill, the comb, glue, soap and woollen 
cloth manufactories, &c. — ^by being seasonably 
gathered up and either incorporated with the 
barn yard manures, combined with compost 
materials, or buried directly in the soil, will 
prove the most efficient aids in promoting fertil- 
ity. “The carcass of a dead horse,” says Lord 
Meadowbank, “which is suffered to pollute the 
air with its effluvia, has been happily employed 
in decomposing 20 tons of peat earth, and trans- 
forming it into the most valuable manure.” 
In illustration of the value of numerous re- 
fuse matters commonly accounted “good-for- 
nothing,” and thrown away, it may here be stat- 
ed that the finest crop of eight-rowed com in- 
spected by the Agricultural Committee of Berk- 
shire, the present year, owed its superiority, in 
their opinion, to the employment of a compost 
manure, in which the principle ingredient was 
woellen flocks. The soil was thin, consisting of 
exceedingly coarse gravel; yet the growth was 
luxuriant and the ears well filled, perhaps be- 
yond comparison for the present year.” 
PURE VEGETABLE MATTER. 
This may include straw, leaves, vines, &c., 
and green and ripened crops ploughed under to 
improve the soil; but the consideration of this 
topic being unnecessary in the present connec- 
tion, it will be reserved for a future paragraph, 
under the second branch of our general sub- 
ject, viz: 
THE APPLICATION OF MANURES. 
In order to the judicious application of our 
manures, it is obviously necessary that we have 
regard to certain characters and conditions of 
^oil; as the proportions of its inorganic consti- 
tuents, the amount ol its organic materials, and 
its relations to temperature and to moisture. 
INORGANIC CONSTITUENTS OP SOIL. 
By the inorganic constituents of soil are 
meant those purely earthy substances which 
form the basis, and chiefly determine the texture 
of all soils, but which of themselves, whether 
in a combined or separate state, are wholly in- 
capable of vegetation. Such are gravel, sand 
and clay, (as also lime,) which constitutes the 
basis of the great majority of all our soils. 
CONSTITUTIONAL CHARACTER OF SOIL. 
When either gravel or sand predominates in 
the constitution of a soil, it is termed silicious, 
from silica, the common name of gravel and 
sand. When clay predominates, if is denomi- 
nated argillaceous aluminous, from argil and 
aluminia, both of which signify clay in a pure 
state. If lime be a principle constituent, it is 
called calcareous, for calx, signifying chalk, 
which is only a certain modification of lime. 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS OF SOILS. 
The diflerent proportions in which the inor- 
ganic constituents enter into the composition of 
any soil, will also chiefly determine its physi- 
cal condition; i. e. it will be light or heavy, 
(more properly, loose and compact,) wet or dry| 
warm or cold, in proportion as it consists chief- 
ly of gravel and sand, or mostly of clay. 
ORGANIC CONSTITUENTS OF SOIL. 
By the organic constituents of soil are meant 
those vegetable and animal substances which 
help to compose the soil to a certain depth, which 
exert a considerable influence also upon its tex- 
ture, and upon which vegetation is extirely de- 
pendent for its subsistence. In .scientific works 
on agriculture, this portion of the soil is usual- 
ly treated of under the name of geme, humus or 
vegetable mould; and embraces every thing in the 
soil capable of decomposition, and thus becom- 
ing the food of plants. 
OBJECT OF THE APPLICATION OF MANURES. 
To increase this organic portion of the soil, 
is the great object of the application of manures. 
It should not, however, for a moment be imag- 
ined that the simple augmentation of the pro- 
portion of organic matter will insure fertility, 
since very much depends upon the state as well 
as the quantity of this matter in the soil. It is 
upon these two circumstances taken in connec- 
tion, that the farmer is wholly dependent for 
success in all his agricultural operations. 
CERTAIN CONDITIONS OF THE SOIL PRK-REaUI- 
SITE. 
In illustration of what is meant by the de- 
pendence of fertility on the state of the geine in 
the soil, it may be observed, that manure ap- 
plied to either gravel or clay in a pure state, 
might as well be applied to the surface of an 
equatorial desert, a pool of water, or an island 
of ice; the former (gravel,) being destitute of 
that quality of compactness which is necessary 
to prevent the salts and juices of the manure 
from escaping at once into the earth, or air, and 
to retain a sufficient degree of moisture for the 
purposes of vegetable life; and the latter want- 
ing that opposite quality of prosity which is re- 
quisite for the escape of that superabundance 
of moisture, which by its own presence, and the 
exclusion from the soil of the other atmospheric 
agents, would prove equally fatal to all the pro- 
cesses ol vegetation. 
The proposition, therefore, must approve it- 
self to every intelligent farmer, that the fertility 
of the sotil depends not only on the quantity of 
geine in the soil, but also on the slate of that 
geine as affected by its relations to the inorga- 
nic constituents. Hence the importance to the 
agriculturalist of making himself acquainted 
with the nature of the soil in general, and of 
his own soil in particular, that may husband 
to advantage his means of fertilization, and not 
expend his strength in labors that will in the 
end prove fruitless. 
CONSTITUTION OF fHE BEST ARABLE SOIL. 
The proportions in which chemical analysis 
has ascertained the different constituents of the 
most productive soils to exist, are about as fol- 
lows: silica) gravel or sand) 60 parts to 100, 
alumnia (clay) 16 parts, lime 3 parts, oxide of 
iron and manganese 7 parts, geine, (organic mat- 
ter capable of becoming the food of plants,) 9 
parts,potash 3 parts, soda 1 part, magnesia 1 part. 
Says Chaptal: “From the results of analysis 
we find, that in the best earths there is a large 
quantity of gravel, which renders the soil light 
and easily worked, facilitates the passing off of 
superabundant rains. In consulting analysis of 
less fertile soils, we find that their fertility di- 
minishes in proportion as one or the other of the 
three principal earths, (silicia, alumnia and 
lime predominates; and that it becomes almost 
nothing in those which possess the properties of 
but one. The mixture of earth then is neces- 
sary to the formation of a productive soil; and 
their proportion can be varied only according to 
the nature of the climate, and the kind of plants 
to be cultivated. Silicious and calcareous 
earths may form a larger proportion of the soil 
in moist, than in drj" countries, and alumina 
may, in its form, predominate in those lands 
which, from their declivity, suffhr the water to 
flow off freely; but a mixture of the three earths 
can alone form a good soil, and too great a dis- 
parity in their proportions materially affects the 
character of it.”— -p. 26. 
STARTING POINT OF IMPROVEMENT. 
Here then, is evidently the starting point, 
from which the farmer that would run the race 
of improvement, mu.st calculate his “latitude 
and departure.” From this post of observation 
must he survey the sphere of his labors, care- 
fully n»ting the several ingredients of his soils, 
and the different proportions of their several 
combinations, as well as their different condi- 
tions; and thus will he be qualified to enter in- 
telligently on the execution of any scheme rela- 
ting to their improvement. If a careful obser- 
ver, he will early make the important discove- 
ries. 
1. That an excess of silicious or calcarious 
substances, by rendering the soil too porous, oc- 
casions the speedy disappearance of his ma- 
nures, exposes his crops to suffer from droughts 
and frequently disappoints his hopes of a har- 
vest, and frustrates all his efforts at successful 
cultivation. 
2. That an excess of argillaceous matter, by 
rendering his soil too compact, obstructs the 
passage of the surface waters that rest upon it 
in spring, refuses admittance through its indura- 
ted surface to the fertilizing dews of summer, 
excludes the healthful influences of the sun and 
air from the roots of his plants at every period,, 
receives with indifference whatever manures he 
puts upon it, and renders all his labors upon it, 
to a great extent, abortive. ■ 
3. That a certain admixture of the different 
earths composes a soil sufficiently light and 
warm, meeting without detriment the ever va- 
rying states of the atmosphere, affording a ready 
passage to the rains in wet wmather, and to the 
dew's in dry, appropriating largely to his crops 
the beneficial influence of the sun and air, mak- 
ing the most of every particle of manure re- 
ceived, and amply compensating him for all the 
labor he expends upon it. 
SOILS TOO COMPACT OR POROUS IMPROVED BV 
ADMIXTION. 
Having made the above discoveries, the reso- 
lute improver of the soil will come at once to the 
cohclusion, that which the hand of nature has 
left unfinished it is for his to complete; and set- 
ting himself at work in imitation of the pattern 
she has furnished him, will, by a due adjust- 
ment of the different ingredients of his several 
soils, bring up, at len^h, the poorest of his. 
lands quite to the standard of the best. 
He will not, however, find it advisable, in 
most instances, to effect this adjustment direct- 
ly, i. e. by carting soil Irom one field to another 
for the purpose ol admixture; but, rather to cart 
it first to the cattle yard to be blended with a 
portion of solid and liquid manure, and thence 
convey it to the localities selected for improve- 
■ ment. 
This practice has been followed to some ex- 
tent, by the writer, and with the most distin- 
guished success. Indeed, so marked have been 
the beneficial results ol this system as to leave 
upon his mind the full impression, that for a 
light, silicious soil, two loads of argillaceous 
earth well mixed in the cattle yard with one of 
manure, are of more actual value than would 
be three equal loads of clear stable manure.— 
For a heavy, aluminous soil, a similar treat- 
ment with gravelly or sandy loam combined 
wnth manure will prove equally beneficial. 
SOILS IMPROVED BY DRAINING. 
On wet lands manure should never be appli- 
ed at all. Let such lands be thoroughly drain- 
ed, and in most cases it will be found that no 
manure is needed; the soil being already sup- 
plied with a sufficiency of vegetable matter, 
which, having been kept in an insoluble state by 
an excess of moisture, will, u^er more favora- 
ble eircumstances, become decomposed, and fur- 
nish abundant support to vegetation. But when 
it is needful that manure should be applied to 
lands of this description, thorough draining 
should, in every case, precede the application, 
and then the expense will be remunerated. 
[To be continued.] 
