Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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