further from the surface, and forms a deeper soil for the permeation of the atmosphere and the roots of plants. Where the subsoil is compact and impervious to water, but not wet for want of outlet or draining, it is useful to stir the soil to a great depth, but without bringing it to the surface, which may be done by a plow without a mould-board following a common plow in the same furrow. This is an excellent mode of draining, and at the same time keeping a reservoir of moisture, which in dry weather ascends in vapors through the soil, and refreshes the

roots.

"To break the too great tenacity of clayey soils, sand seems to be the ingredient indicated; but so large a quantity is required to produce the desired effect, that its application on a large scale is generally considered impracticable. Lime is exceedingly useful as an ameliorator of clayey soils, inducing chemical combinations the mechanical effect of which is to break up the too great tenacity of the clay, while it adds, at the same time, an element of fertility which may perhaps be wanting. Gypsum or plaster of Paris has the same effect in a still more powerful degree. Ashes, coarse vegetable manures, straw, leaves, chips, etc., are also very useful, adding new materials to the soil, and tending to separate its particles and destroy their strong cohesion. In cold climates, plowing clayey lands in the fall, and thus exposing them to the action of the frosts and snows, has a beneficial effect. At the South, where there is little frost and frequent and heavy rains occur during the winter, the effect of fall plowing is very injurious. Clayey lands must never be plowed when wet.'

To Improve Sandy Soils.-Clay, marls, plaster, lime, and ashes, are the principal substances used for the improvement of sandy soils. Clay is spread thinly in autumn upon freshly-plowed grass lands, and thus subjected to the pulverizing influences of frost; and any desired crop may be grown the following spring. Carbonate of lime has a powerful effect on the fertility of a soil, and no soil is very productive without it. It is consequently used extensively as an improver of the soil. Plaster is sown either late in the fall or very early in the spring, at the rate of from one to two bushels per acre. Sown upon the last snows of spring, its effects are certain, or at any time when immediately followed by copious rain. This fact, however, should be understood by all who use this valuable fertilizer-and all should who cultivate even a gardenthat to dry plaster destroys its value. Hence it should never be sown upon a dry soil, or exposed to drying suns or winds, before it has been thoroughly saturated with water. Sandy soils are benefited by plowing when wet, as they are thus rendered more compact.

Improvement of Peaty Soils.-Where a great extent of peat soil renders the improvement of it desirable, there are various ways in which it may be reclaimed. In some places the peat has been removed, and the loam which lay below it was found of a very fertile nature. This could only be done on the banks of rivers, into which the peat was floated by means of small canals dug through it, and communicating with the river. In all other cases the mode adopted has been that of

* The Farm.

draining and consolidating. In draining a peat-moss, the water must not be let off too rapidly, for in that case the surface may become so loose and dry, that no vegetation can take place in it. If the water is drained off so as to leave two feet of peat dry above its level, this is all that is required for a beginning. The best improvement, and the most rapid, is produced by bringing sand or gravel in sufficient quantity to cover the surface with two or three inches of it. This will make a beginning of a soil in which potatoes may be planted. At first the surface will not bear the wheels of a cart or the tread of a horse; but in a short time a solid crust will be formed, which will increase in strength and thickness as cultivation advances. Manuring and liming are the most effective operations in bringing about this great improvement. Potatoes and oats are usually the first crops on reclaimed peat-mosses. It is long before they become capable of bearing wheat; nor is this crop to be recommended at any time, unless there be a good depth of soil formed over the peat. Laying-down to grass as soon as a certain degree of improvement has been made, and depasturing with sheep at first and cattle afterward, tend more than any other means to consolidate the surface and deepen the mould, which gradually increases by the decomposition of the tannin in the peat.

Improvement of Loams.-All attempts to improve the nature of a soil should have for their object the bringing it to a state of loam, by the addition of those substances which are deficient. If there is too much clay, chalk and sand may be added, or a portion of the clay may be calcined by burning, in order to destroy its attraction for water, and thus act the part of sand in forming the loam. Limestone or calcareous sand and gravel are still more efficacious for this purpose: they not only correct too great porosity, or too great tenacity, but also act chemically on the organic matter in the soil, rendering the humus soluble and fit to be taken up by the roots of plants. If there is too much sand, marl composed of clay and chalk is the remedy. Good loams require much less tillage than stiffer soils, and will bear more stirring to clean them than sands. Hence they are cultivated more economically, and more easily kept free from useless weeds; while the produce is more certain and abundant. They can be impregnated to a higher degree with enriching manures, without danger of root-fallen crops, or of too great an abundance of straw at the expense of the grain. For artificial meadows they are eminently proper: all the grasses grow well in good loams, when they are on a dry or well-drained subsoil, which is an indispensable condition in all good land. Sheep and cattle can be depastured on them during the whole year, except when there is snow on the ground. If there should be means of irrigation, no soil is better suited to it than a light loam on a bed of gravel; or even if the subsoil is clay, provided sufficient underdraining prevent the water from stagnating between the soil and subsoil, which, as practical men very properly express it, would poison any land.

A loamy soil requires less dung to keep it in heart than either clay or sand; for while it is favorable to the process by which organic matter buried deep in the soil is converted into insoluble humus, it also permits that part of it which is nearer to the surface to attract oxygen

from the air, and thus it is converted into a soluble extract, which is to the roots of plants what the milk of animals is to their young-a readyprepared food easily converted into vegetable juices.

11. MANURES.

"Manures are the riches of the field.”—CHAPTEL.

We shall here confine our observations to that class of manures which stimulate or enrich the soil.

Lime, as a manure, acts most powerfully in its caustic state, that is, when deprived of the carbonic acid which is generally united with it.

The use of quick-lime in rendering inert vegetable fibers soluble, and hastening the decomposition of animal substances, is of the greatest importance in agriculture. Substances may be rendered highly enriching in a short time, which, without it, would have lain long dormant in the soil or the dung-heap.

Quick-lime spread on a soil abounding in vegetable matter will make it active by dissolving the half-decomposed fibers and converting them into a soluble mucilage; being extremely minutely divided by its property of attracting moisture rapidly, a very small quantity produces an immediate effect. Hence it is generally spread over fallows or cloverleys which are preparing for wheat-sowing. If it were put on the land long before the seed were sown, it would have lost its chief power by attracting carbonic acid and returning to the state of carbonate or chalk, and all the expense of burning wood would be thrown away.

But the most valuable agent in decomposing organic substances is the salt and lime mixture made as follows:

Take three bushels of unslacked lime, dissolve a bushel of salt in as little water as possible, and slake the lime therewith-if the lime will not take up all the brine at once, which it will if good and fresh burned, turn it over and let it lie a day and add a little more of the brine, daily turning and adding until all is taken up.

This salt and lime mixture is exceedingly valuable. It destroys the odor of putrefying animal matters, while it retains the ammonia. Of itself it supplies plants with chlorine, lime, and soda, all of which are requisite. Any vegetable refuse whatever, leaf mould, turf, straw, chips, and even tan-bark, if kept moist and sprinkled throughout with this mixture, become thoroughly decomposed in a very short time, and if used for the bottom of pig-pens, stables, and yards, where they can absorb the urine, they become the very best of manure.

Pulverized Charcoal is a valuable fertilizer, and whenever it can be obtained it should be used by all progressive farmers. A given quantity of it by measure is of more value than the same quantity of plaster. This, to those familiar with the latter, will be a sufficient commendation.

Plaster. So universal has become its use, and so general the appreciation of its utility, that nothing further need be said of it, except to

add, that all grass and corn lands should receive an annual dressing of from one to two bushels per acre.* If sown at the right time it would pay a fine return even at triple the cost of the article.

A. B. Dickinson's Method of using Plaster on Seeds." I will tell you how you can put a coat of tar over all kinds of seed as evenly as a painter could put a coat of paint over a board with his brush. An iron kettle is the best to mix the tar and water. Have sufficient boiling water to cut the tar; mix it with the hot water; then pour in sufficient cold to make it near blood heat. Have sufficient water to stir whatever grain you put in, that the water and tar may come into contact with every part and particle; it will then be coated evenly and is ready to be taken out. Shovel it into a basket-for economy the basket may be placed over a tight barrel to catch the water; as soon as it is done draining throw into a tight box, where you can mix and put on whatever your soil lacks. If wheat or barley, you need not fear to apply lime and salt. If oats, corn, or buckwheat, plaster and salt. And on the soils of Yates county it would be beneficial to all of the abovenamed grains, to steep in strong brine overnight. Every species of grass-seed I sow with a heavy coat, and fasten as much plaster as possible, which draws moisture in a dry season, and prevents rotting in an excessively wet one, and I never fail to have my grass seed take well."

Barn-Yard Manure is, however, the great reliance of the farmer; and the best means of increasing the supply of that should be his constant study.

"There is one thing settled in farming, stable-manure never fails. It always tells. There are no two ways about it. There is here neither theory, nor speculation, nor doubt, nor misgiving. 'Muck it well, master, and it will come right,' is an old proverb. It is considered a fact so well established, that nobody thinks of disputing it. There is advantage in asking why barn-yard manure never fails. The answer is easy. It contains all that plants need for their growth."+

The vast Deposits of Peat or Swamp Muck found so generally throughout the country, furnish an excellent means of adding vastly to the quantity of manure. The peat should be thrown up in summer into cones, that it may lose a portion of its moisture and be lighter to carry. It may then be carted to such places as will render its use most convenient in the stables, cattle-yards, etc. In the stables, a layer from six to ten inches thick should be spread once a week to receive the fluid deposits of the animals, which it will absorb and hold, the solid being regularly removed. Once each week it should be removed and a new supply take its place. If cattle are fed in yards, and under sheds, it should be thickly strown over and beneath them. In the spring the following course should be pursued-a bottom of peat is to be laid in some dry and convenient place, six inches deep and fifteen feet wide; on this are to be put the manure from the stables and all the unfermented accumula

* Professor Johnson has ascertained, by analysis, that an ordinary crop of clover or sainfoin will yield per acre from one and a half to two hundred weight of sulphate of lime. This is precisely the quantity usually applied per acre in those parts of the country where plaster is in most general use.

+ Dana.

tions of the winter, to the depth of ten inches, then six inches of peat, and over this four inches of dung, and so on, alternately, to the height of four or five feet. The whole should then be surrounded and covered with peat about one foot in thickness. The proportion of fresh dung is about seven cart-loads to twenty-one of peat, if the weather is mild; but more dung is required if the weather is cold: over this heap ashes or lime may now be spread, in the proportion of a cart-load to twentyeight of the compost. The dung should not have fermented much before it is used, and if it is watered with urine or the drainings of a dunghill, the effect will be more rapid. Animal matter, such as fish, refuse of slaughter-houses, and every substance which will readily undergo the putrefactive fermentation, will accelerate the process, and save dung in the compost. Where pigeons' dung can be procured, a much smaller quantity will produce the desired effect. The heap should not be pressed down, but be left to settle by its own weight. If the heat produced by the fermentation is very great, the whole heap may be turned over and more peat added to it. This will keep up the heat till the whole is reduced to a uniform mass of black mould. It may then be put on the land in the same quantity that farm-yard dung would have been, and consequently, by a little labor, four times the quantity of manure is produced by the mixture of the peat with the dung. It is found that lime is not essential to the formation of this compost. The fermentation excited is sufficient to decompose the tannin and convert it into a soluble extract. The fibers, partially decomposed, are reduced into vegetable mould, and the whole assumes a uniform and rich appearance. A complete chemical change has taken place, and the peat, from being very inflammable, is now scarcely capable of combustion, and that only in a very great heat. There is no better or more economical mode of converting peat into a rich manure. In summer the whole process may be completed in eight or ten weeks; in winter it takes a longer time; and it may be useful to give the heap an occasional lining of fresh dung, as is done with hot-beds in gardens to renew the heat.

Hog Manure is of the most valuable kind. By freely supplying the sty with muck, as just intimated for stables, or with loam, refuse, litter, etc., a surprising quantity may be thus manufactured. A single swine in a year will saturate with his urine and convert into the best manure, ten loads of swamp muck or loam.

Manure of Fowls.-It has been said by a careful agricultural chemist, that one pound of the manure of fowls that has not been exposed to the sun and rains is equivalent in value to fifty pounds of stable-mantire. Though the expression may seem difficult of belief, its value, nevertheless, is clearly so great as should lead to its careful preservation and use, instead of permitting its worse than useless expenditure upon the branches of fruit-trees, the utensils stored in open sheds, or upon the backs of animals which have sought shelter there.

Green Manures are best suited to comparatively heavy soils; yet their free use in all varieties of soil has the general sanction of intelligent farmers. Red clover, sainfoin, buckwheat, Indian corn, cow-pea, etc., are the crops generally employed for this purpose. They should be plowed in when in blossom.