PRACTICAL PAPERS- SANDY LAND. 
227 
terial is easily obtained. In the central part are situated the 
great cranberry marshes of the state. 
It is well known that a sandy soil is the easiest of all soils 
to cultivate, and if it can be kept up to a proper state of fer¬ 
tility, offers many inducements to the farmer. Its organic mat¬ 
ter is held in the most accessible shape for plant-food. It does 
not bake ; is warm and friable ; tools easily keep bright in it, 
and if the crops are not so heavy, a larger area can be culti¬ 
vated with the same labor, so that settlers are quite content 
with lighter yields. 
The new land when first broken ud was rich with theaccu- 
A. 
initiated fertility of centuries, and the early settlers were de¬ 
lighted with its fertility and easy cultivation. The sandy re¬ 
gion received its full share of attention; the first crops were 
abundant, and the idea prevailed that our lands were inex¬ 
haustible in their fertility. But farmers have since found to 
their sorrow, that a system of farming, which has no higher 
aim than to pocket all that is possible of the wealth which 
mother eanh has been ages in collecting, is a system which 
leads to ruin. 
The first settlers were often men with means sufficient to 
enable them to start out wdth comfortable improvements. The 
small timber growths, which it was necessary to remove, fur¬ 
nished an abundance of fencing, and the country at once as¬ 
sumed an air of comfort and prosperity, but the rapid ex¬ 
haustion of the soil which followed, led to discouragement, 
and often to the entire abandonment of the improvements, so 
that a traveler to-day in passing through the sand district is 
struck with the appearance of discouragement which prevails 
on every side. 
The question before us is—might this result have been 
avoided, or is there now any remedy .or the existing state of 
things ? 
In considering this question, I shall confine myself strictly 
to the use of means available to the actual settler. We know 
that with the expenditure of money, “ the desert maybe made 
to blossom as the rose;” and we know, too, that there is not 
