A sericulture is the most healthy, the most useful, and the most 
s noble employment of Man.--T. 
■ Washington. 
Vol. I. 
New-ITork, July, 1842, 
No. 4. 
A. B. Allen, and R. L. Allen, Editors. 
Geo. A. Peters, Publisher, 36 Park-Row 
“THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST” 
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The Improvement of Sandy Soils. 
In considering the manner of renovating ex¬ 
hausted lands, or such as are naturally sterile, 
there is always a preliminary inquiry to be made 
by the prudent farmer, as to the profit or loss of 
the proposed project. In China, and other por¬ 
tions of the East, and in Flanders, and other 
parts of Europe, this question is never asked. 
If the foundation can be had to work upon, 
this suffices to determine the undertaking. Their 
industry, skill, and perseverance are at once put 
in requisition to accomplish the object, and 
in this they never fail. No matter how un- 
propitious or forbidding the prospect. If, as in 
Holland, the earth demanded for man’s subsis¬ 
tence, is several feet below the surface of the 
ocean, a dyke of sufficient strength is made to 
secure and hedge it in from the watery waste; 
ditches are made through it wherever required; 
a pump worked by a windmill or other power, 
hrows out the surplus water that cannot be dis¬ 
posed of by draining; other earths are added, 
If essential, to temper the reclaimed ground; 
manures, both vegetable and mineral, are ap¬ 
plied ; and finally, seeds carefully selected are 
planted, and the result, the necessary result, is 
that a kind Providence smiles on these perse¬ 
vering efforts, and bountiful crops richly reward 
the labours of the husbandman. If, as in Bel¬ 
gium, they have an arid sand alone to com¬ 
mence with, they pursue a system of trenching, 
to which they add all the manures within their 
reach, and roots and clovers follow in rotation, 
with occasional other crops, thus completing 
the reclamation of the sandy heath. If, as in 
Ireland, Scotland, and some portions of Eng¬ 
land, a marsh of peat, repellent of all vegeta¬ 
tion, save the cold and water-loving lichens; the 
mass is effectually drained of its antiseptic 
moisture, which prevents all vegetable decom¬ 
position, without which, a re-organization of ve¬ 
getables in new varieties and other forms, can¬ 
not be accomplished, the earth is broken up and 
exposed to the influence of the elements, and 
soon by the addition of other earth, destitute, 
perhaps, of fertility in itself, the whole surface 
is at once brought into perfect and lasting sub¬ 
jection. In Egypt, where the naked sands have 
been driven by the blasting sirocco since the 
days of the Pharaohs, whenever the whim or 
policy of the reigning Pasha dictates the cultiva¬ 
tion of any portion of this drifting mass, irri¬ 
gation and the addition of manures and a por¬ 
tion of other soils, instantaneously produces a 
change equal to the wand of their own magi¬ 
cians. The transformation is as sudden as it is 
wonderful and enchanting. Where but a few 
months before not a blade of grass, or a single 
shrub had disturbed the solitary waste for thou¬ 
sands of years, extended plats of luxuriant grass 
rise up in delightful contrast with the surround 
