Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1851-02-27
agrtrul ltura1.
From the Working Farmer.
On Mixing Soils.

On Mixing Soils.
The following admirable article from
the Gardeners and Farmers Journal,
should be read by every farmer Of a SAN
dy soil. There is no mistake in the pow.
er of clays to retain the resultant ammo
mia from the decay of manures, and a
coating of clay applied on the surface in
the fall will be thoroughly disintegrated by
spring. Many farmers having sandy soils
and having access to clay pits, now mix
guano month before it is required for
use with pulverized clay, and then apply
it to the soil.
Much light has recently been thrown
on the proper principle of mixing soils.
1t has been so long known as an axiom
in farming, that while certain mixtures of
soils produced the most wonderful and as.
tonishing effects, other mixtures, in ap-
pearance equally plausible, had no bene-
fetal tendency whatever. So completely
is this admitted, that it has grown into a
proverb more worthy of quotation from
its acknowledged truth than the merit of
its poetry, which is confessedly of very
doggrel character. 1t runs
"Clay upon sand,
Makes land
Sand upon clay,
Throws money away"
Now, while vast quantities Of sand will
only produce stratiied mixture, and add
neither to friability nor productiveness; a
small quantity Of clay on light blowing
sand will effect an almost an entire change
in the absolute character of the land. 1t
will bind the soil, and prevent its blow
ing; it will give it the power of maturing
crops of wheat and beans; it will enable
it to "hold manure;" it will remedy the
destructive disease called "(iugers and
toes" nay, it will improve the soil for the
production of any crop whatever. Many
of these qualities we may readily under
stand. But the power Of holding manure
is elucidated most satisfactorily by the
experiments of Professor Way, "on the
absorptive powers of a soil, of which
clay forms an important constituent" :"
We alluded before to this discovery, made
really by Mr.. Thompson, and carried out
and elaborated by the Professor; and
without tiresome details, unintcresting ex-
cept as illustrative of facts, we may OBJ
serve that pipe-clay, in certain favorable
conditions, would absorb .20l0 per cent.
Of ammonia, while Mr.. Huxtable's soil
would absorb as much as 1886 per cent.
Now, as Mr.. Huxtablc's soil, which is
described as loam-an open friable sand
as we may call it, with clay sufficient to
render it mechanically sound-had more
power to absorb ammonia than pure clay,
it gives an immense Importance to the
value of claying loose sandy soil, and
indicates the value of q bed of clay under
sand as being little short of California
mine.
1t is easily conceivable how porous
soil, through which small portion Of
clay is dif'used, is more retentive of ma
nure than either pure clay or pure
sand. In the one the entire mass runs
through like sieve; in the other it can
not percolate at all, and comes in contact
only with the upper surface; but in a
sandy soil, through which clay is mixed
and difIused, the case is entirely different.
Large surfaces of the clay are presented
to the manuring medium, while the liquid
Will pass through, leaving in its passage
the elements over which the clay posses.
ses the detaining power.
Now, it so happens that there are few
extensive tracts of sand which have not,
either in the valleys, or at least below the
surface-marl, clay, or loan, each more or
less fitted for mixing with the greatest ad-
vantage. In all the most unmanageablc
sands, this holds good as rule; and
though the distance of a valley may some
times be an element of cost, or the depth
of an under-stratum very serious source
of expense, still the situation must be ex-
tremely unfavorable when the getting,
removal, and spreading will cost more
than .sixpence per cubic yard. But it
often happens that stratum of clay will
be found in some hillside, and so be easily
obtained-dispersed with facility, and the
appearance of the soil absolutely improv.
ed by its removal. Now, as two hundred
cubic yards will be ample dressing for
the very worst sand imaginable, the cost
will not, in any ordinary case, exceed
FIVE pounds per acre; but as one hundred
cubic yards will often answer, and, in the
majority of cases, certainly one hundred
and fifty, the cost between the blowing
sand and the fertile crop-growing soil is
really consideration of only some three
pounds ten shillings an acre-an amount
which even in these times of low prices,
two years crop would generally repay.
The best period of laying on the clay
is the autumn, because the pulveriziug
effects of the winter rains and frosts will
tend more completely to break down and
facilitate the assimilation of the mass,