SOILS.
The nature and management of soils must be measurably understood by any one who would be a thorough cultivator. The productive power of a soil depends much upon the character of the subsoil. A gravelly subsoil is, on the whole, the best. A thin soil lying on a cold clay subsoil—the hardpan of the East, and the crowfish clay of the West—however rich it may be, will be unproductive; while the same soil, on a gravelly subsoil, would produce abundantly. The best soils, for all purposes, are the brown or hazel-colored. Plowed in wet weather, they do not make mortar, and in dry weather they will not break in clods. Dark-mixed and russet moulds are considered the next best. The worst are the dark-gray or ash-colored. The deep-black alluvial soils of the Western prairies are an exception to all other soils, possessing, under proper treatment, great powers of production. Soils do not, to any considerable extent, afford food for plants. A willow-tree has been known to gain one hundred and fifty pounds' weight, without exhausting more than two or three ounces of the soil, and even that might have been wasted in drying and weighing.
In our article on manures, we have shown that it is the texture of soils, and their power to control moisture and heat, that renders them productive: hence, no soil can be poor that is stirred deep and kept in a friable condition, without being too open and porous; and no soil can be good that is hard and not retentive of moisture, without having water stand upon it. Hence, the great secret of successful farming, is, such a mixture of the soils, and of fertilizers with the soil, as shall keep it friable and moist, and such thorough drainage as will prevent water from standing so as to become stagnant, and to unduly chill the roots of growing plants. Nature has provided, near at hand, all that is essential to productiveness; all that is necessary is to properly mix them. We do not believe that there is an acre of land now under cultivation in the United States, in a latitude where corn will grow, on which we can not raise a hundred bushels of shelled Indian corn, without applying anything but what may be raised out of that soil, and procured in the shape of manure by animals in consuming that product. The poorest farm in America may be brought up to a state of great fertility, without applying one dollar's worth of any foreign substance. Plow deep, turn under all the green substances possible, and feed out the products on the farm and apply the manure, and mix opposite soils, that may be found in different localities. Three years will secure great productiveness, and the same course will increase its value, from year to year, without cost. Three things only are essential to convert poor land into the best; deep and thorough stirring and pulverization, suitable draining, and thorough mixture of soils of different qualities, and the incorporation of such animal and vegetable substances as can be produced on the land itself. We would not declare against foreign manures, but insist that the necessary ingredients are found, or may be manufactured near at hand. The philosophy of deep plowing and thorough pulverization is obvious. A fine soil will retain and appropriate moisture in an eminent degree, on the principle of capillary attraction, or as a sponge or a piece of loaf sugar will take up water. There is also room for excess of water to sink away from the surface, and return again when needed. It also affords room for the roots of plants. Such a soil also receives moisture from the atmosphere. The atmosphere also contains much water, and more in the heat of summer than at any other time. The air also, with a constant pressure of fifteen pounds to the square inch, enters to a considerable depth into the soil, and the deeper it is stirred, and the more thoroughly it is pulverized, the more it will enter. In coming in contact with the cool moisture below, it is condensed and waters the soil, on the principle that a pitcher of cold water in a warm room has large drops of water on the outside; that water is a mere condensation of moisture in the atmosphere. The cool subsoil acts in the same way upon the atmosphere at night. A deeply disintegrated soil, also, seldom washes by rain. Shallow-plowed and coarse land sends off the water after a slight rain, while deep-plowed and thoroughly pulverized land retains it. The philosophy of manures involves the same principles. All the fertilizers act upon soils in such a manner as to render them fine, and open an immense surface to the action of the atmosphere, and form large reservoirs for moisture through their innumerable fine pores. Draining is to carry off an excess of water that would stand on an unfavorable subsoil. That water, on undrained land, causes two evils; it stagnates and renders plants unhealthy, and it is too cool, rendering land what we call cold. Thus, the deeper you plow land, and the finer you make it, the warmer it will be, and the more perfectly it will control moisture. Mixing soils by subsoiling, trenching, and deep plowing, and by carting on foreign substances, is wholly on this principle. Sand that drifts about with the wind is too light to retain moisture, and needs clay carted on. By this means the poorest white sand has often been converted into the most productive soil. Definite rules for this mixture of soils can not be safely given. The rules must differ in different localities and circumstances; it must, therefore, be determined by experiment. Analyzing soils is sometimes of use, but usually has too much importance attached. We do not advise farmers to study it. Let them try applications and mixtures, at first on a small scale: they will soon learn what is best on their farms, and may then proceed without loss. Some lands are of such a character that the carting on, and suitably mixing, the substances in which they are deficient, may cost as much as it did to clear the land of its original forest; but it will pay well for a long series of years. So well are we persuaded of the utility and correctness of these brief hints, that, in selecting a farm, we should regard the location more than the quality of the soil. The latter we could mend easily; while we should find it difficult to move our farm to a more favorable location. Poor land near a city or large town, or on some great thoroughfare, we should much prefer to good land far removed from market, or in an unpleasant location.