168 
Improvement of Sandy Soilso 
dearer however, which they are rapidly do¬ 
ing under this management, they being now 
worth $20 to $30 per acre, of no better quali¬ 
ty than such as he bought a few years since 
at $8 to $12, the policy of manuring will be¬ 
come more expedient, though the rapidly 
improving nature of this system will give 
greater efficacy to the clover crop as a fer¬ 
tilizer. 
It is surprising to see the elevated noles 
and barren planes, that so lately exhibit¬ 
ed nothing but a crawling sand, by the ope¬ 
rations of the clover roots, in this otherwise 
impracticable material, gradually changing 
its inadhesive character to a firmly connect¬ 
ed mass, showing a furrow slice that would 
gratify the most practised eye. Mr. Clark 
acknowledges his surprise at the facility 
with which the clover takes, and attributes it 
mainly to the use of the roller. We are in¬ 
clined to concede much to that instrument, 
but think for his white and other clover he 
is greatly indebted to the Plaster. Of this 
we have more to say hereafter. 
We observed the woodchucks, who are 
arrant epicures and gourmands in their selec¬ 
tion of esculents, and especially of sweet and 
abundant clover fields, are thoroughly colo¬ 
nized over all the fields of Mr. C. They follow 
him, as our politicians do the successful can¬ 
didate of Executive dispensations for John 
Randolph’s seven principles, the five loaves 
and two fishes. They snuff his green patches 
of trefoils, and instanter abandon the pover¬ 
ty stricken fields of his unthrifty neighbors. 
His crop of wood chucks, though not as im¬ 
portant as the shoe crop at Lynn may soon 
be well worth the harvesting. 
Mr. C. has not pursued this cultivation suf¬ 
ficiently long to have matured a system of ro¬ 
tation, which, however, he virtually practises 
with some variations, from his own judg¬ 
ment. A little more experience will enable 
him to determine, whether a crop can be 
taken more advantageously every second or 
every third year, but we are satisfied, with a 
moderate dressing for the corn, the rotation 
might be of three years duration, affording 
alternately corn, rye, and clover, the last to 
be added entire when dry , to the soil, for its 
improvement. Green crops are never used 
as improvers, they always being allowed to 
mature before turning under. Piaster should 
always be added, unless ashes or lime can 
be more economically applied; but the for¬ 
mer is limited in supply, and the latter is to 
be had only at a price which will effectually 
prevent its use in this region. 
Here, then, we have a system for reclaim¬ 
ing barren wastes within every one’s reach ; 
costing nothing, and yielding a great deal \ 
and if this were rigidly carried into practice, 
how soon should we see the naked sand 
banks, that exist, to a greater or less extent, 
everywhere between the Alleghaniesand the 
Atlantic, converted into verdant, luxuriant 
fields. Yet for the want of the application 
and steady perseverance in this plain, 
straight forward, simple course, how many 
will continue to live on in ignorant poverty, 
when they might, with less toil, and the use 
of a moderate share of intelligence, have a 
competency. A single bar left down in this 
practice, lets in the whole herd of Pharaoh’s 
lean kine. Without the roller and plaster 
you get no clover , if you cut off the clover 
when grown, you get no subsequent crop ; 
or if you crop too closely or rapidly, the 
clover-bearing properties of the soil are ex¬ 
hausted, and new manures, or years of idle, 
wasteful fallow are necessary to resuscitate 
it; whereas, by a careful observance of the 
above plan, the ground is constantly and 
profitably at work, bearing its burthens on 
equitable shares, giving one half or two 
thirds to you, and reserving the remainder 
to itself, to enable it to continue the supply. 
Though Mr. C. does not connect any grazing 
or stock-feeding with these operations, it is 
easy to see how it can most advantageously 
and profitably be associated with them. Cat¬ 
tle and sheep can be put on to the rye fields 
both in fall and spring, when sufficiently 
thick and stout to justify it, and when well 
sodded over with clover, what more mutu¬ 
ally advantageous to cattle and land, than 
such a copartnership. 
We must add a word for the benefit of 
such of our readers as have no sandy or 
sterile soils, nothing but virgin fertility, 
falsely estimated to be exhaustless. We 
beg all such to consider that the principles 
for reclaiming, are the principles for preserv¬ 
ing also; that no land is so rich but that it 
can be exhausted, unless fed by inundations, 
and that there is more profit in sustaining 
their lands in the highest condition of fertili¬ 
ty, than by a wasteful system o.f cropping, 
first to reduce them, to be resuscitated 
again by slow and painful efforts, or aban¬ 
doned to posterity to be gradually reclaimed 
by the sure, though dilatory, operations of 
nature, to that state of fertility in which they 
might easily have been preserved. 
There are some particular advantages that 
attach to the tillage of light sandy soils. 
They require the least possible effort to plow 
and harrow, and these operations can be per- 
