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422
CLAY LANDS.
A gentleman has forwarded the following let
ter, asking my opinion as to the value of clay
land. I should be glad if you would publish it,
for it puts the question plainer than I know how
otherwise to put it: —
“In writing to you as a stranger, I trust that
the same spirit which raised'you to the position
of a public benefactor will lead you to pardon
such intrusion. My object in doing «o is with a
view to remove, if possible, what I conceive to
be a common error in the minds of agriculturists,
and which your letter in the Agricultural Gazette
on the subject of the prize farm at Oxford inad
vertently tends to promote. In that letter you
make use of the expression “poor clay land” no
less than three times—ironically, I believe, but as
my experience leads me to think that the ordinary
run of newspaper readers do not understand
irony, and take every word litterally, to such it
may appear to be a contradiction that in one
breath you are calling clay land poor, and in the
next saying that it will produce 40 bushels of
"Wheat to the acre. And again, that u it needs
little else besides deep and clean working, a little
superphosphate for Wheat, and that is all,” no
consumption of cake, as “ the poor stone brash
requires.” Now, with your great practical expe
rience, the fact of your condemning clay to the
class of poor soils cannot but be a confirmation
of Ihe geneneral opinion which already exists in
the minds of land surveyors, landlords, and ten
ants. It is the habit of nearly all to call clay
poor, and yet scientific men say that it is inex
haustible in mineral food for plants. My own
humble opinion is, that when once the water is
got out of it by drainage, with ordinary fair
treatment it is a mine of wealth. I have a piece of
heavy clay land which has borne alternate crops
of Wheat and Beans for 20 or rather, perhaps, 30
years. The only variation being that every sixth
year a crop of roots is substituted for Beans, and
then it only gets a dressing of farmyard manure;
that is, three crops of Wheat, two of Beans, and
one of roots, in six years. The produce of
Wheat is invariably up to 40 bushels per acre,
and the roots, especially Mangels, are a heavy
crop; the average crop of Wheat on the adjoin
ing land, and of the neighborhood, on similar
soil, is considered to be 24 bushels; it is therefore
set dow nas poor clay land, and mine also is in
cluded in the general condemnation. It stings
me to the core to hear land that with ordinary
SOUTH ERN CULTIVATOR.
fair treatment will produce 40 bushels to the
acre, set down as poor land. If, therefore you
will have the kindness to state plainly what your
opinion is, whether clay land is or is not poor,
whether it is the soil that is poor, or whether it is
the treatment which it receives, that is poor. If,
as I expect, you will confirm my opinion, you
will do as much as is possible for one man to do,
in attempting to remove a blot from the intelli
gence of the age, the result as much of habit as
of thoughtlessness.
As my object will be attained by the publi
cation of your opinion, will you be kind enough
to state hi your reply whether you have any ob
jection to such a course.”
I have informed the gentleman that I will an
swer the question publicly, therefore I proceed at
once to do so. Clay land generally is rieh in min
eral food, especially so the subsoil. This land,
that I call poor clay, is situated in what is called
a poor clay district, extending from here right
into and through large tracts of Oxfordshire. I
call mine poor clay, to make the reader under
stand that itiis of that character called poor clay,
whereas I prove that it is not poor. It is the gener
al management on such land that is poor, not the
land. Those who look upon clay land as poor,
therefore unworthy of pood, deep, and clean
management, do not appreciate the mineral qual
ities of the soil, neither do they the good there is
contained in air and water.
Now, the land of mine, which under ordinary
horse culture produced only 20 bushels per acre
on an average of years, now under steam culture
produces 40 bushels per acre, thereby proving
that, under horse culture, it was not half farmed;
and that represents the general state of things
now-a-days under horse culture. So they call the
land poor, instead of calling themselves poor far
mers.
In November, 1859,1 employifl Dr. Voelcker
to take samples and make analyses of this clay
land of mine. Here is what he says about it: —
Composition of Surface and Subsoil, from
Field No. 3, Heavy Land.
Chemical Analysis.
Surface soil. Subsoil.
Moisture, 4.39 .. 3.68
Soluble in dilute hydrochloric
acid: —
matter and water of
combination 8.19 .. 4.68
Oxides of iron and alumina.. 11.40 .. 12.38