Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1841-09-03

ISL peSt TT WIFI IS called poor land and, II
cultivators were perfectly acquainted with
the art of adapting plants to soils, much ma
nure might be saved, which is wasted by in
judicious and improper application.
1t is supposed by biologists that the whole
of this earth originally consisted of rocks, of
various sorts or combinations These rocks,
by the lapse OF ages and exposure to air and
water, became disintegrated or worn in part
or altogetherto fine particles, which compose
what are called earths or soils. These soils
are chiefly silica (sand or earth of flints,)
lime (or calcareous earth,) alumina (clay J
and magnesia IA mineral substance.) With
these are blended animal and vegetable mat
tiers in a d%ecomposed or decomposing state,
and saline, acide, or alkaline combinations.
Plants are the most certain indicators of
the nature of a soil /; for, while no practical
cultivator would buy or undertake to till land
of which he knew only the results of chemi-
cal analysis, yet every farmer and gardener
who knew the timber and plants a soil spon-
taneously produced, would at once be able
to decide on its value for cultivation.
1t was a maxim of Kliyogg, a famous phi
losoplical farmer Of Switzerland, 'that eve
ry species of earth may be instrumental to
the Improvement of another of opposite qua
%litics." All sands are hot and dry-all
clays, cold and wet; and, therefore, the
manuring sandy lands with clay, or clay
lands with sand, is best for grain and pulse.
But it is not the natural soil only that the
farmer ought to consider, but the depth oft,
and what lies Immediately underneath it.
For If the richest soil is only seven or eight
inches deep, and lies Oh a cold, wet clay or
stone, it will not be so fruitful as leancr soils
that lie on a better under stratum. Gravel
is, perhaps, the best under stratum to make
the land prolific.
The best loans and natural eartns are of
a bright brown or hazel color. Hence they
are called hazel loans. They cut smooth
and tolerably easy, without %clinging to the
spade or ploughshare; are light, iriablc, and
fall into small clods without cllapping or
cracking in dry weather, or turning into
mortar when wet. Dark grey and russo,
moulds are accounted the next best. The
worst of all are the light and dark ash color
ed. The goodness of land may also be very
well Judged of by the smell and the touch.
The best emlts a fresh, pleasant scent on
being dug or plowed up, especially after
rain; and being IA just proportion of sand
and clay intimately blended, will not stick
much to the fingers on handling. But al!
SOILS, however good, may be impoverished,
and even worn out, by successive crops with
out rest, especially if the plowings are not
very frequently repeated before the seed is
Sown.
If we Xamln tracts of land which have
not been cultivated, we find nature has
adapted different kinds of plants to most of
the distinguishablc varieties of soils and
though some belonging to one may for some
cause or other be found on landsofa different
quality, they seldom thrive, or perfect their
seeds so as TO become general. The great
care OF the farmer ought, therefore, TO be,
by proper mixtures to reduce his land to that
state and temperament in which the extremes
OF hot and cold, wet and dry, are best cor
rected by each other to give them every
possible advantage flowing from the benign
influences of sun and air and to adopt sucl
kinds OF plants as they afford in this state the
greatest nourisilment to and to renew theiI
fertility by a judicious allowance of the mos
proper manurcs. Where these things art
done, there are few spots so uniriendly tC
cultivation as not to repay his expenses ans
labor with a plentiful increase. But withou
these, the best tracts of land will in time be-
come a barren waste, or produce little Blu
woods.
The color of soils is important. Tn
Farmers Journal observes, coal ashes wer,
~sprinkled over half the surface of beds SOW