JANUARY. 19 
development and abstraction of the plant food; hence the rapid growth 
of vegetation on such soils, while supplied with moisture, and their quick 
exhaustion of the supplies for vegetable growth. Such soils require very 
frequent manurings, and less working than heavier soils; and the best 
of all dressings for them are clays, marls,and calcareous matter generally. 
Calcareous soils are most generally met with in the chalk and oolitic 
districts. Here lime is in excess, and the application of organic manures 
and dressings of any composts not abounding in lime will produce a 
favourable effect. Calcareous soils rarely burn or dry up in hot 
weather, and are admirably adapted, when of sufficient depth, and 
contain a certain quantity of clay in their composition, for the growth 
of many kinds of plants. Taken as a rule, plants thriving on cal- 
careous soils refuse to grow on peat soils, and vice versa. 
Peaty soils consist of peat proper and bog soils. Peats and bog earths 
differ but little in composition; both are composed of organic matter 
formed by the gradual decay of mosses and other minute forms of 
vegetation, which in the case of bog earth has consisted also of aquatic 
plants ; peaty soils, generally speaking, are not very fertile for general 
purposes; their composition is too light and spongy for large rooted 
plants, and to fit them for the purposes of gardening (except for the 
growth of their own peculiar class of plants), they require dressing 
with clay, marl, or other heavy composts. Lime is of the greatest use 
to peat soils, in promoting the decomposition of the woody fibre, and 
in neutralising certain acids largely intermixed with peat soils. 
The above brief sketch of the principal divisions of soils will show 
our readers the general features of their characters, and enable amateurs 
and non-professionals to judge in some measure for themselves of the 
nature of the soils with which they may have to deal. 
The soil most conducive to the health and productiveness of fruit 
trees is unquestionably one containing a certain proportion of clay 
and calcareous matter, and mixed with other ingredients to keep it 
mechanically open. The Herefordshire orchards, where the finest Apple 
and Pear trees in this country are to be met with, are principally 
situated on soils composed of the decomposed marl stones of the old 
red sandstone; or in other words, the soil consists of clay and lime, 
mixed with a friable stony shale, whicli gives it drainage, besides adding 
fertility by its slow decomposition. The marly loams of the new red 
sandstone are very favourable for fruit trees; and as we know these 
consist of clay, sand, and a small per centage of the carbonates and sul- 
phates of lime, we may consider soils containing the latter ingredients, 
when not in excess, favourable for fruit trees generally. True calcareous 
soils, not positively overdone with chalk, produce good fruits, particularly 
when of sufficient depth. Many of the soils overlying the chalk are 
clayey in their nature, and when there is a sufficient admixture of 
lime and other matter in them to effect a drainage, they constitute some 
of the best soils for fruits. Many parts of Middlesex, Essex, Sussex, and 
Hampshire may be adduced as evidences of this. The vast tract of 
country devoted to orchards in the department of Normandy and other 
parts of France are all on soils of this description, on which the Apple 
and Pear attain a very large size and great longevity. The soil in 
i el lias 2S Bl 
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