194 
THE CULTIVATOR. June, 
furnish elements which are directly useful in the 
growth and perfection of plants. 
Wood-ashes are also an excellent manure for san¬ 
dy soils. The potash dissolves a portion of the silex 
or flint, and the soil becomes more close in its tex¬ 
ture. It is probable that all alkalies have a similar 
tendency. Hence urine and guano, which contain 
much ammonia, are particularly valuable for sands 
—they furnish the nitrogen of plants, and improve 
the physical character of the soil by making it more 
compact. Unfermented animal manures, mixed with 
straw or other vegetable matter, are not proper for 
sandy soils. They increase the defect which it is 
wished to remedy; that is, render the soil more 
open, which, according to the weather, causes the 
manure either to dry up and its strength to evaporate, 
or to be leached into the earth by rains. It is found 
best in all cases, so far as we have been acquainted 
with the improvement of this kind of soil, to apply 
animal manure in the form of well rotted compost. 
The objection which has been made, that this mode 
of managing manure causes a waste of its valuable 
properties, is not well founded. The absorbent 
substances, peat or litter, which should be mixed 
with the manure, will prevent the escape of the sa¬ 
line and gaseous portions—the ammonia will com¬ 
bine with the carbon, and remain sufficiently fixed 
till the manure is applied to crops. Manure in this 
state does not make the soil more dry, but rather at¬ 
tracts moisture to it, and consolidates its particles. 
Several kinds of plants have a beneficial effect in 
binding sandy soil. On very light sands, some 
kinds of reeds, which will grow in such situations, 
are planted. Prof. Norton states that the Arundo 
arenaria is planted in the blowing sands of some 
parts of Holland and Belgium, which were former¬ 
ly not only of no value, but were often driven by 
winds over cultivated fields, burying the crops and 
the fertile soil. He states that the roots of the 
plant run forty to fifty feet, sending up a shoot at 
every joint, and that he has walked over immense 
sand heaps, the surface of which, even to the bleak 
and exposed tops, was bound together by this plant. 
Another plant which is much prized in Europe, in 
the improvement of sandy soils, is spurry. We do 
not know that this plant has been cultivated in 
America. Prof. Johnston, in his late lectures in 
this city, observes —“ Of all food for cattle, spurry 
grows best on light, sandy soil. In Europe it is 
considered an exceedingly milk-producing food for 
the cow." It appears from the accounts we have 
of it, that it is not adapted to the very lightest and 
poorest soils, but will grow on those which will not 
bear ordinary cropping. It is cultivated largely on 
the sandy soils of Flanders, and according to Thaer, 
is the most nourishing, in proportion to its bulk, of 
all forage, and gives the best flavored milk and but¬ 
ter. It is said, also, to be particularly valuable for 
plowing under—producing a large crop. It is well 
worthy of a trial in this country. 
The clovers, red and white, are among the best 
plants for a sandy soil, though they will not at first 
flourish well on the poorest sands. The red clover 
is enabled, from its long roots, to draw nourishment 
from a great depth in the soil, and in common with 
other plants of the same family, ( Leguminosa ,) it 
has the faculty of drawing much of its support from 
the air. On these accounts, it is one of the best 
crops which can be grown as a fertilizer—that is, 
to be plowed into the soil. The carbon of the at¬ 
mosphere, and the soluble mineral elements of the 
soil, are combined by the plant, which, by its de¬ 
composition furnishes a store of food for other crops. 
The white clover has a more binding effect on the 
soil than the red, on account of the peculiar cha¬ 
racter of its roots, one set of which start near the 
surface and extend in a lateral direction, fastening 
the soil in a thick net-work. 
The manures of which we have spoken, especial¬ 
ly ashes, greatly favor the growth of clover. Plas¬ 
ter, or gypsum, also, on many soils, produces a 
great growth of this plant. In improving sandy 
soils, the application of these substances in the out¬ 
set, may in many cases be found expedient, in order 
to insure the first crops of clover. 
The cultivation of sandy land has of late years 
received much attention in various parts of Europe. 
In Great Britain, as well as on the continent, much 
of the light soil which formerly produced scarcely 
any thing, and was deemed of little value, is now 
made to produce good crops of wheat. The feed¬ 
ing of sheep, in connection with the growth of clo¬ 
ver and turneps, has always been deemed an impor¬ 
tant auxiliary in the improvement of this kind of 
soil. It is by this course, and the application of 
bones, that the light soils of Norfolk have keen 
made to produce some of the best wheat crops in 
England. The same kind of soil in other districts, 
has likewise been greatly improved. Prof. Norton 
in speaking on this subject, observes :—“ I have 
seen in the North of England, a fertile tract, cover¬ 
ing what was a few years since a wide moor, bleak 
and desolate. In the centre of the flourishing 
farms, on a small hill, stands a stone pillar, some 
seventy feet in height, bearing on its base an in¬ 
scription signifying that it was erected in former 
days to guide the traveler,bewildered on those dreary 
and trackless wastes. Many of the farms immedi¬ 
ately surrounding that pillar,, now produce thirty- 
two bushels of wheat to the acre.” 
The writer of an English prize essay on the cul¬ 
ture of wheat, says the course which has been pur¬ 
sued with light soils, “established the fact that the 
clover root was a better bed for wheat than a fal¬ 
low, the sheep’s treading and droppings were a much 
better dressing than lime or barn-yard manure; and 
that blowing sand could, in eight or even four years, 
be adapted to the production of as many bushels of 
wheat to the acre as the naked, open, laborious fal¬ 
low.” He thinks the most suitable manure for 
wheat is bones, in connection with the droppings of 
sheep, left while feeding on the land; and observes 
—“ In the bones, the phosphorus, which is so es¬ 
sential to the formation of the grain, is supplied, 
and the urine and dung of the sheep supply the other 
constituents necessary for perfecting the plant in 
straw and grain.” 
The improvement of light and sandy soils is be¬ 
ginning to attract attention in this country, and 
some examples of very successful cultivation of such 
soils might be named. In Rhode Island, and in 
some parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut, tracts 
of more or less extent are fairly reclaimed and 
brought under a profitable course of cropping. 
Several trials have been made in cultivating the 
sandy plains near Albany,which deserve notice. Mr. 
J. McD. McIntyre is the owner of 900 acres of 
this land, eight miles from Albany, which came into 
his possession about ten years since at $10 an acre. 
It was then mostly covered with pitch pines, gene¬ 
rally of small size—the whole growth not amount¬ 
ing to over twelve to fifteen cords of wood to the 
acre. In some places, the growth was only small 
bushes, and scattering shrub-oaks. Mr. Mcl. be¬ 
gan farming on this land as an experiment, deter¬ 
mined to proceed cautiously and on a comparatively 
small scale, till the profit or loss should indicate the 
I proper course. The first results having been favor- 
