112 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
considerable mechanical division, while much of that of the other 
lias only been loosened, in sensible masses, from its native bed. 
Any light soil, mixed with a sufficient portion of stones, is gravel; 
and gravel, therefore, is nothing else than the different kinds of light 
soils, mixed with a greater or less proportion of stones. 
Gravels, like sands, have all the gradations of quality, from fertili¬ 
ty to barrenness. The loose soils of this nature, in which the unde¬ 
composed material is great, and the intervening soil silicious, are 
held to be the worst of their kind. These are in some places, term¬ 
ed hungry grave Is, not only to denote their poverty, but their tenden¬ 
cy to devour, as it were, manure, without any corresponding nou¬ 
rishment to themselves. As the texture and quality of the interven¬ 
ing earth improve, so does the quality of the entire soil; and gra¬ 
vels, like sands and clays, advancing through all the intermediate 
degrees, may become, at last, of great fertility. The rich gravels 
will produce all the cultivated kinds of grain. Their looser texture 
renders them less suited than clays to the growth of wheat and 
beans, but they are admirably adapted to the growth of barley and 
oats. They are quick in their powers of producing vegetation ; and, 
from this quality, they are, in some places, termed sharp or quick 
soils. They readily admit of alternations of herbage and tillage, and 
improve in a state of perennial pasturage. They are generally 
trusty soils with regard to the quality of the grain which they yield ; 
and in this respect, they differ from many of the sands, in which the 
quality of the grain produced does not always accord with its early 
promise. It is well, then, even in the best sands, to see a tendency 
to gravel, which denotes a sharpness, as it is termed, in the soil. 
Gravels, like sands, are suited to the culture of the different kinds of 
plants raised for the bulbs and tubers of their roots; and they are 
in so peculiar a degree suited to the growth of turnips, that, in some 
parts, they receive the distinguishing appellation of turnip soils. 
The last division of the lighter soils consists of those which are 
termed peaty. 
The matter of the soils of this class is dark in its colour, spongy 
in its texture, and full of the stems and other parts of plants, either 
entire or in a state of partial decay. It is generally tough and elas¬ 
tic ; and, when dried, loses greatly of its weight, and becomes inflam¬ 
mable. These, the most observable characteristics of the soils term¬ 
ed peaty, will distinguish them, in their natural state, from every 
other ; and even when they shall have been greatly improved by 
culture, enough of their original characters will remain to make them 
known. 
Peat, it has been said, consists of vegetable matter which has un¬ 
dergone a peculiar change. Under a degree of temperature not suf¬ 
ficiently great to decompose the plants that have sprung upon the 
tar,ace, these plants accumulate ; and, aided by a certain degree of 
humidity, are converted into peat, which is either found in strata 
upon the surface of plains, or accumulated in great beds upon the tops 
and acclivities of mountains, or in vallies, hollows and ravines. Suc¬ 
cessive layers of plants being added to the mass, it continues to in¬ 
crease, under circumstances favorable to its production. Water is 
a necessary agent in its formation, and we may believe too, a pecu¬ 
liar temperature, since it is only in the cold and temperate, and not 
in the warmer regions of the earth, that it is found to be produced. 
The plants which form it have not entirely decayed, but still retain 
their fibrous texture : and from the action of certain natural agents, 
have acquired properties altogether distinct from those which, in 
their former condition, they were possessed of. They have now 
formed a spongy, elastic, inflammable body, and so different from the 
common matter of vegetables, as to be highly antisceptic. 
The plants whose progress towards decompositon has been thus 
arrested, are very various. Over the greater part of the surface of 
the primary and transition districts of colder countries, the peat is 
chiefly formed of mosses, and other cryptogamic plants, mixed with 
the heaths and other plants which had grown along with it. Some¬ 
times the peat has been formed in swamps and lakes, and at other 
times the humidity of the climate has been sufficient to form it in one 
continued bed, covering the whole surface of the country. 
Of the heaths which enter into the composition of peat, that hardy 
species the common ling, Calluna vulgaris, is the native inhabitant 
of the alpine countries of northern Europe, and grows in vigor, and 
overspreads the surface, where hardly any other of the larger plants 
could live. Hut although this and other species of heath are very 
generally converted into peat, this not necessarily or universally 
so. By the growth and decay of the roots and stems, a soil is in¬ 
deed formed ; but then this may take place m the same manner as 
in other soils, and without the actual conversion of the upper stratum 
into peat. This, however, in the case of the cold and moist coun¬ 
tries of the north of Europe, is comparatively rare, for, generally the 
plants, from the slowness of decomposition of their ligneous roots 
and stems are wholly or partially converted into peat. In the cases 
in which, these plants are not converted into peat, a dry and turfy 
soil is formed, very different in aspect from that formed by the gra¬ 
mineous and other easily decomposed plants, but still produced in 
the same manner, though, like the peaty soils, elastic and inflamma¬ 
ble, on account of the greater quantity of ligneous matter in its com¬ 
position. The soil itself is generally thin and little favorable to ve¬ 
getation. It usually rests upon a subsoil of silicious sand, and some¬ 
times of chalk, and then it is comprehended under the class of soils 
termed light. 
The soil formed of peat would, from its vegetable composition, 
seem to contain within it the necessary elements of fertility, and yet 
this is not found to be so. The excess of vegetable matter which it 
contains is injurious rather than useful. In the state of nature, it is 
often found to be as barren as the sand of the desert, and scarcely 
to deserve the name of soil until the labor of art has been extended 
to its improvement, and even then it is not entirely divested of its 
original characters. 
The effect of thorough draining off the water of peat, continued 
for a long time, is to carry away the antisceptic matter which it con¬ 
tains. When the water of peat ceases to be turbid and comes off 
clear, then we have the assurance that the peat is freed of the prin¬ 
ciples injurious to vegetation. This is the greatest improvement of 
which peat is susceptible, and when we have brought it to this con¬ 
dition, the main difficulty of improving it has ceased.* 
Peat may then be brought to the state of what has been termed 
loam. In this ameliorated condition it becomes a soil of the lighter 
kind, well suited to the culture of the larger rooted plants. It is dark 
in its colour like the richest vegetable loam, and to the experienc¬ 
ed eye, may pass as such. But still, unless greatly corrected in its 
texture by the application of the earths, it is found to be porous and 
loose, too quickly saturated with moisture, and too easily freed from 
it. In this improved condition, it will yield bulky crops of oats and 
barley, although the quantity of the grain will not always correspond 
with the weight of the stem, nor the quality of the grain with its 
quantity. 
Soils, then, we have seen, may be distinguished according to their 
texture and constitution, when they may be divided into two classes 
—the stiff or strong, denominated clays—the light or free, subdivid¬ 
ed into the Sandy, Gravelly and Peaty ; and all these again, may be 
distinguished, 
1st. According to their powers of production, when they are term¬ 
ed Rich or Poor; and, 
2d. According to their habitual relation with respect to moisture, 
when they are termed Wet or Dry. 91 
This simple nomenclature of soils, is sufficiently intelligible to the 
practical farmer. The farmer chiefly regards soils with relation to 
their fertility, and the means of cultivating them, and he naturally 
classifies them according to these views. A main distinction be¬ 
tween soils, in practice, is founded upon their comparative produc¬ 
tiveness, and this is the distinction which is most important with re¬ 
gard to mere value. We constantly refer to soils with reference to 
their good or bad qualities, without adverting to the particular cir¬ 
cumstances which renders them of good or bad quality. We speak 
familiary, for example of land worth 40s. 50s. and 60s. the acre, 
without considering whether it be a fertile clay, a fertile sand, or a 
highly improved peat. We speak of it with reference to its fertility 
and value alone. But those other distinctions, which are derived 
from its constitution and texture, are essential when we regard the 
manner of cultivating such a soil ; for the same method of tillage, 
and the same succession of crops, as will be afterwards seen, do not 
apply to all rich or to all poor soils, but are determined by the cha¬ 
racter of the soil, as derived from its other properties. 
Though soils are thus distinguished by external characters, they 
pass into each other by such gradations, that it is often difficult to 
say to what class they belonsr. These intermediate soils, too, are 
the most numerous class in all countries. The soils termed peaty, 
indeed form a peculiar class, always marked by distinctive charac- 
* These characteristics of peat do not generally apply to the matters found in 
our swamps and marshes. We have no heaths, and the vegetable matter is 
more broken down by the hoats of our summers than jt is in the north of Eu¬ 
rope. Draining, in most cases, converts our swamps into productive sous. 
