466 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
July 6 
Part XI. 
Given the two extremes ot soil—an 
open, porous gravel, and a thick and 
plastic clay, which would be the easiest 
to “ cure ”? Most people would prefer 
to take the gravel in hand, we think, 
because the immediate returns would be 
quicker, and the first cost less. While 
the heavy clays are “stronger” soils, the 
labor required in opening them up so as 
to permit the passage of air and water, 
is often too much for the average farmer 
to undertake. 
Last week, the writer examined a field 
in the Hudson River Valley that prom¬ 
ises to give a very interesting experi¬ 
ment. This field is on a steep hillside 
overlooking the river. It is a tough, 
brick clay, suitable naturally for brick 
making. It now forms part of a gentle¬ 
man’s estate, and lies directly in front 
of the mansion. Naturally, it should be 
covered with some grass crop to be in 
keeping with such an estate. It is, how¬ 
ever, an “eyesore” with a scant crop of 
weeds and grass—looking more like a 
half-baked brick than a lawn. Now that 
field must be put in grass or grain, and 
the question is, “How is it to be done ?” 
Many attempts have been made to start 
grain, grass or clover on this field, but 
they have failed. Manure and fertiliz¬ 
ers have been poured on to the soil, but 
all to no purpose apparently. What is 
the trouble V The soil is rich enough to 
grow any desired crop, but its mechanical 
condition is such that the plant roots 
cannot push through it and develop. 
The soil is so hard that in places one 
can hardly push a knife down through 
it. On pulling up one of the dwarf 
weeds that are trying to grow there, a 
puny, cramped root system is disclosed. 
Instead of spreading out as roots should, 
they are drawn up close to the plant, 
and restricted to a feeding area of not 
over two or three inches. 
The only thing needed in that soil is 
to force the fine particles of the clay 
apart, so that the roots of plants can 
freely circulate for water and food. The 
soil is now in much the condition of a 
man with the asthma or some nasal ob¬ 
struction that prevents full breathing. 
You might feed him on the most delicate 
or concentrated food to be had, but until 
you gave him a better chance to breathe, 
he would never improve in health. That 
soil must be broken up and separated be¬ 
fore it can give fertilizer or manure a 
chance to feed useful plants. 
It will be evident to all, particularly 
in this season of drought, that plants 
cannot depend on rainfall alone for their 
supply of moisture. If they are to drink 
“ between showers,” it must be from the 
water stored up in the soil —the water that 
has sunk into the soil and is held there 
between the soil particles. The water 
that nourishes the roots of plants, is not 
found in the form of a lake or pond 
like that which runs into a well. It is 
held in a thin film or sheet around and 
between the minute particles of the soil. 
Thus you can see that the greater the 
number of particles, the more water 
thus held, and the more constant the 
supply. For example, take a pebble an 
inch in diameter. That would hold a 
film of water a little over three inches 
square. Take 1,000 pebbles, each one- 
tenth of an inch in diameter. They 
would occupy the same space, yet present 
a water surface of 31% square inches. 
In the same way 1,000,000 pebbles each 
one-hundredth of an inch in diameter 
would give 314 square inches of surface, 
or one billion pebbles each one-thou¬ 
sandth of an inch in diameter would 
give an aggregate water surface of 3,141 
square inches, yet all will pack into the 
cubic inch of space. 
Now the particles of the clay are ex¬ 
ceedingly small, and if they were sepa¬ 
rated would hold an abundance of water. 
The trouble with that soil is that there 
is nothing to hold these particles apart. 
The rain fell upon the upper surface and 
made it thick and pasty like the soft 
mass in the brickyard that is molded 
into bricks. Then came the hot, scorch¬ 
ing sun on this mass of clay, and baked 
it hard almost like the sunburned bricks 
from which they build houses in Cali¬ 
fornia and Mexico. The next rain that 
comes, instead of soaking in and loosen¬ 
ing up the soil, runs off down hill almost 
as it would over a brick pavement. The 
plants that start a feeble growth in this 
soil, cannot thrive. They are tied fast. 
The roots that might crawl through a 
crack in a rock and split it by their 
growth, cannot make way through this 
baked clay. The seeds either fail to 
germinate, or start and make only a 
feeble, stunted growth. There may be 
water down in the subsoil, but it cannot 
rise to meet the roots that would gladly 
utilize it. Suppose you put a big wad of 
piano felting in a lamp to serve as a 
wick. You would have a very poor 
flame, because the oil could not rise 
properly through the felt. You could 
not quicken it up by pouring more oil 
into the lamp below the wick. You 
might pour oil on the top of the wick 
and use it as a torch ; but until you 
opened out the spaces in the felt, and 
gave a better chance for the oil to climb 
up, you would not have a suitable light. 
In the same way, until that clay is 
loosened up so that its particles are 
separated, there can be no suitable pas¬ 
sage tor water, and no plant can thrive 
on it, no matter how well it be fed. 
If that field were level, tile drainage 
would undoubtedly benefit it; but with 
its steep surface, we believe subsoil 
drainage would answer. Our plan would 
be first to run a subsoil plow as deep as 
possible through this clay. Turn the 
surface over to the usual depth, and fol¬ 
low in the furrow with a subsoil plow, 
putting it down as far as four horses 
could pull it. The object of this would 
be to increase the depth to which water 
will sink after a rain. We would then 
have an open reservoir beneath the sur¬ 
face which would always absorb and 
hold more or less moisture. This will 
encourage the downward growth of the 
roots, while the surface soil above it 
would be far less likely to bake and 
crust above this moisture. At the sur¬ 
face, every effort should be made to 
secure a heavy crop of organic matter 
for plowing under. Twenty loads per 
acre of coarse sand or gravel, spread on 
the surface and plowed and harrowed 
in, would do far more good than 20 loads 
of manure because it would hold the soil 
apart and thus increase its drainage 
capacity. Wood ashes or other forms of 
caustic potash, should not be used ; but a 
fair dressing of quicklime harrowed in 
after plowing, will probably act to sepa¬ 
rate the clay and open its spaces. Lime in 
excess always spoils clay for brick mak¬ 
ing. The chief remedies for such a 
field, however, will be subsoiling and 
green manuring. The land should be 
plowed and subsoiled at the most favor¬ 
able time, and the surface thoroughly 
fined and loosened. A quick-growing 
crop like rye, could then be sowed and 
plowed under when at its best as a foun¬ 
dation for future humus crops. We 
would not roll or pack such a soil, but 
would aim to keep the surface as fine 
and mellow as possible until a good 
catch of grass can be secured. The work 
of reforming such land will be long and 
tedious, because it is not a mere matter 
of plant food, but a thorough re-arrange¬ 
ment of the soil particles. 
To show the vast importance of water 
in perfecting crops, we give the follow¬ 
ing figures from the trials of Prof. F. H. 
King of the Wisconsin Station. He has 
made some very careful experiments to 
determine how much water is actually 
needed to mature our various crops. By 
“dry matter,” he means the entire pro¬ 
duct from an acre of the sun-dried or 
salable crop. With grain, of course, this 
includes stalk and straw. The water 
was measured by accurate instruments 
—part of it being applied by means of 
irrigation : 
WATER NEEDED FOR A CROP. 
Pounds of water 
Crop per acre. needed 
Dry matter. to produce it. 
Dent corn. 19,515 6,042,537 
Flint corn. 25,099 5,870.657 
Red clover. 9,613 4,345,076 
Barley. 10,819 4,241,048 
Oats. 10,755 5,990,535 
Field peas. 8,017 3,824,109 
Potatoes. 12,805 5,403,710 
These figures make an interesting 
study. To utilize this vast quantity of 
water on an acre, the plant roots must 
evidently have free access to all parts of 
the soil. Any obstruction that prevents 
the growth of the roots or the rise of 
water through the soil, will be sure to 
cut down the crop. Thus we see again 
the importance of tillage and green 
manuring as a means of increasing the 
water capacity of the soil. 
Dog Intelligence. —The London Live 
Stock Journal tells this story of a trained 
dog named Esau, the property of an 
English farmer named Cooper. Esau 
was what would be called a “ mongrel ”— 
thus upsetting the prevailing idea that 
only “thoroughbred ” dogs show superior 
intelligence : 
He would, unaided, drive the cows home to be 
milked, he being more trustworthy than a boy 
for the purpose. If a cow or heifer happened to 
be headstrong, he had a special cure, which was 
to get hold of one of their foi - e legs (below the 
knee) and bring them down on their knees, which 
generally had the desired effect. He was very 
often employed to carry tools, etc., to and fro in 
the hayfield, and such was his knowledge that he 
would jiick out and bring from among a dozen 
others any particular fork or rake mentioned by 
Mr. Cooper. One day while working with the 
team, Mr. Cooper lost his purse, and, after an un¬ 
successful search, Esau was put on with “ Go 
and find it, old man.” The order was instantly 
obeyed, and the missing purse soon brought 
back. On one occasion one of the plowboys 
lost his hat in a storm of rain and wind ; being a 
dark winter’s morning, he was unable to see 
where it went, so had to return to the stable with¬ 
out it. The dog had been for the cows in an op¬ 
posite direction, but was at once sent off to find 
the hat, which he quickly returned with, to the 
great delight of the boy. Esau was regularly em¬ 
ployed to carry clefts of firewood into the kitchen, 
which he did in the most orderly fashion. It must 
be mentioned that he always distinctly refused to 
“serve two masters,” therefore it was only Mr. 
Cooper whom he obeyed. 
lUiScdlancoiitf 
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