ELEMENTS OF A Gill CULTURE, 
61 
CHAPTER 11, 
Fke Physical Properties of Soil . 
LESSON X. 
TEXTURE AND DEPTH OF THE SOIL. 
70. Ttlz nature and the proportionof the elements that 
eompose a soil are not the only causes that influence its 
quality or degree of fertility. The physical properties 
(see No. 65) exert also an influence that it is very impor¬ 
tant that the farmer should know. There may be a con¬ 
siderable difference in the value of two fields, even when 
they are composed of elements of the same nature, and 
are in the saipe neighborhood. This difference is due to 
several causes, that we will now examine. 
71. The first thing that a farmer should attend to, who 
wishes to lease or rent a farm, is the texture and depth of 
the soil. These are two properties that should have the 
greatest influence, not only upon his choice of rotations,* 
but upon the cost of cultivation. Of two farms of equal 
extent, one may cost twice as much to cultivate as the 
other. We may easily conceive, then, how important it 
is that the farmer should possess a thorough knowledge of 
the properties to which we allude. 
72. The texture or consistency of a soil is nothing more 
than the degree of strength with which its molecules are 
bourtc to each other ; this is what is called cohesion. The 
more consistent a soil is, the harder it is to work, and the 
* A system of rotation is that by which, on a given piece of land, one crop 
Is made systematically to follow another. 
