Loam

“ A good sandy loam is common in the Heath division; a sandy loam with chalk, or a flinty loam on chalk marl, abounds on portions of the Wolds; an argillaceous sand, merging into rich loam, lies on other portions of the Wolds; a black loam and a rich vegetable mould cover most of the Isle of Axholme on the north-west; a well-reclaimed marine marsh, a rich brown loam, and a stiff cold clay variously occupy the low tracts along the Humber, and between the north Wolds and the sea; a peat earth, a deep sandy loam, and a rich soapy blue clay occupy most of the east and south Fens ”

“ Those who look after cricket grounds and the like have seldom any acquaintance with the constitution of soils; they are apt to treat all, whether sand, light loam, strong loam, heavy clay, or even peat, in exactly the same way, instead of recollecting that, as in agriculture, a judicious combination will alone give us that ideal loam which produces the best turf, and the best soil for every purpose. ”

“ In a loam district that does not {110} lie too high the land is generally all taken up, even the roads are narrow and there are few commons. The hedges are straight and cut short, the farm houses and buildings are well kept, and there is a general air of prosperity all round. Good elms grow and almost any tree that is planted will succeed. Loams shade off on one side into sand ”

“ A good loam—that is a non-coherent mixture of clay and sand with a proportion of such decayed vegetable matter as leaves and the fibrous roots of grasses—is the best garden soil, being what is termed warm and early. ”

“ The loess is a “salt, fine sandy loam with a large percentage of sand or silt, and considerable calcareous matter, and usually a small amount of clay.” It contains considerable humic matter, discolouring rapidly in the air (when exposed it is characteristically a bright buff) . It is of extraordinary fertility, and its great depth (in Lincoln and Dawson counties bluffs 200 ft. thick are found) is a guarantee of almost inexhaustible resources. ”

“ While the physical character is of secondary importance, as generous crops are grown in sandy soil as well as in heavy loams, still the ideal soil is a sandy loam, i. e., a mixture of organic matter, clay and sand. A subsoil of gravel, or the presence of hard-pan, is not desirable, as cultivation to a depth of from twelve to fifteen inches is necessary to produce the best results. ”

“ I have found it to thrive in loam, both light and moderately stiff, also in vegetable soil and sand; it likes moisture, but not of a stagnant character; between large stones, at the base of rockwork, suits it in every way; it may also be grown by the side of the larger kinds of snowdrops for contrast and effect. Impatient of being disturbed, it is not wisdom to lift it for any purpose, provided it is making progress, or until it has formed strong tufts ”

“ Somewhat heavy loams are best for potting pine apples, for melons and strawberries, fruit trees in pots, &c., and may be used with the addition of manures only; but for ornamental plants a loam of a somewhat freer texture is preferable and more pleasant to work. Loam which contains much red matter (iron) should be avoided.
Sand is by itself of little value except for striking cuttings, for which purpose fine clean sharp silver sand is the best; and a somewhat coarser kind, if it is gritty, is to be preferred to the comminuted sands which contain a large proportion of earthy matter. ”

“ The Soil in which I have found at least two thirds of these plants succeed, is a light soapy loam, mixed with a greater or less proportion of sand. Chuse a spot that has never been pared or burnt, especially on higher ground not inundated in wet seasons; and in digging the earth, only take from 5 to 6 inches of the top, including the turf. ”

“ Such examples, however, merely show that where a basin is so limited in size that the detritus is derived chiefly or exclusively from one formation, the prevailing rock will impart its colour and composition in a very decided manner to the loam; whereas, in the basin of a great river which has many tributaries, the loam will consist of a mixture of almost every variety of rock, and will therefore exhibit an average result nearly the same in all countries. ”

“ It should be of such character that when a damp portion is firmly compressed in the hand it will fall apart when released. It should never bake. Good old garden loam, to which an equal quantity of sand has been added, is usually a good soil for common in-door seedage. ”

“ The population numbers ten thousand.
Next day, the 13th of Nov., we drove the same distance over a wide, prairie-like, uncultivated plain, and a lava-field of twenty miles in width, the road through which was fearfully rough. This old lava underlies the soil—the rich, black loam, of the country—at a depth of three to six feet, for many square leagues. ”

“ The loam must be wet at some times and comparatively dry at others."
"My dear sir, you mistake; the latest method is to carefully remove the surface loam before watering, and then to replace it, moistened to the proper degree."
"This is all very interesting," quoth the Colonel. "How it does one good to talk with a genuine enthusiast on these delightful subjects! You are trying for the blue dahlia, of course?" ”

“ In warm climates, the incorporation of the sand with the clay is effected by frequent plowing and rains. On sand and gravel draw plenty of clay and loam, if it can be easily procured; thus it is easy to form a good friable, retentive loam, adapted to every variety of soil-culture. ”

“ Here are gathered all the asters that either love or will tolerate dry soil, a certain bid for their favour having been made by mixing several barrels of stiff loam with the top sand, as an encouragement until the roots find the hospitable mixture below. ”

“ I ride for miles and miles, everywhere the finest and richest loam of a gray color, sometimes a little drawing towards slate blue, sometimes again towards yellowish. It is immensely rich, and can hardly be improved. There is, however, especially near Orange, a different kind of soil consisting of the sand loam, but intermixed with very coarse gravel. This soil is warmer but consequently not so rich. The grapes ripen on it two weeks earlier, but yield only one-half as much as those on the richest loam along the creeks. The vines planted here were alone the Muscat of Alexandria. ”

“ Cultivation.—In the late fall or early winter the selected area, should be a light sandy loam as described above, needs to be deeply plowed, and if the subsoil is not already of an open and porous nature, through which surface water will readily drain and the roots easily penetrate, a subsoil plow should follow, breaking the soil to the depth of at least 15 inches. ”

“ For garden purposes loam should be rather unctuous or soapy to the touch when moderately dry, not too clinging nor adhesive, and should readily crumble when a compressed handful is thrown on the ground. ”

“ The soil in the uplands and hills being chiefly composed of a light sandy loam, with a stratum of clay about a foot underneath the surface, rendered the travelling from the late excessive rains rather fatiguing, as we were obliged to tread on tufts of grass to avoid sinking in many places into this wet and hollow ground. ”

“ There prevails the same superficial loam, from one to three feet deep, then succeeds small gravel mingled with the loam, which rests upon the uniform foundation of coarse and rounded gravel. Clay is everywhere, on the plains, the predominant ingredient of the soil. ”

“ If grown in brown loam with a little sand, they will preserve their original colour; but if grown in swamp earth with a little mould of decayed leaves, they will become blue. The swamp earth and vegetable mould being more combined with aluminous salt than brown loam, is the cause of the change ”

“ For golf greens and lawn-tennis courts situated on light soil, loam is an indispensable dressing. Any loamy substance will vastly improve the texture of a light soil and the quality of the herbage. Yet it is most difficult to convince people of this fact. We have known cases in which hundreds of pounds have been expended on cricket grounds and golf greens when an application of clay top-dressing would have put the whole thing to rights at the cost of a few shillings. ”

“ The soil is commonly a dense tenacious brown or red brown loam, often free from stone for large areas, and composed of the detritus of the calcareous and argillaceous rocks. That combining the sand of the cretaceous rocks, and the clay of the marl beds, is of high fertility. ”

“ A sandy loam, well mixed with leaf-mold, is their delight. We usually remove the top soil, and then take out and reject about twelve inches of the subsoil, making in all about twenty inches depth; return the top earth, together with enough compost of leaf-mold, sand, and thoroughly decayed manure, to fill it; plant about four inches deep, measuring from the top of the corm. When your plants are growing, examine every day; if you see a sawdust-like matter about them, they need attention. On searching, a perforation will be found in the stem. ”

“ Their characteristics depend, aside from topography, upon the predominance of organic or inorganic constituents, water, and air. Loam contains much organic matter, many earthworms and innumerable bacteria. Deep soil is rarely contaminated with excrementitious matter. At a certain level, dependent upon the position of strata of clay and gravel, is a subterranean collection of water known as ‘ground water.’ It represents the moisture that permeates the surface soil after that is saturated and reaches an impermeable soil upon which it firmly lies, and from whence it is pumped or raised in wells. ”

“ They are, as a rule, the best of all soils, and their goodness is in part due to the fact that they contain a little of everything, with no great predominance of any one particular earth. Cultivation also produces loam. On a clay land we find a top crust of clayey loam, and on a lime or chalk land a top crust of calcareous loam. Where cultivation has been long pursued the staple is broken and manures are put on, and the roots of plants assist in disintegration and decomposition. ”

“ The natural fruitfulness of the native red loam is preserved by dressings of shell mud, seaweed and fish refuse. The decayed jackets of mussels, oysters, clams, crabs and lobsters form a highly valued deposit which the farmer hauls from the outlets of bays and rivers to spread upon his grain and truck fields. ”

“ When adobe soil dries, great cracks form in it. These cracks are sometimes large enough for small animals to fall into. When there is a large amount of sand, we speak of the soil as light or sandy. A soil composed of sand and clay is sometimes called loam. If it is nearly all clay it is a clay loam ”

“ The soil however of both hills and low grounds appear as fertile as that further down the river: it consists of a black looking loam with a small portion of sand, which cover the hills and bluffs to the depth of twenty or thirty feet, and when thrown in the water dissolves as readily as loaf-sugar, and effervesces like marle; there are also great appearances of quartz and mineral salts: the first is most commonly seen in the faces of the bluffs, the second is found on the hills as well as the low grounds, and in the gullies which come down from the hills ”

“ As the flowers droop beneath the foliage, they are just what we want for the roof. Nothing can surpass the beauty of their lovely pendent blossoms. The drainage should be first-rate, as it requires an abundant supply of water when growing. The soil should consist of good fibrous peat, mixed with a little loam and plenty of sand. The plants will receive an immense amount of benefit from a partial shade in hot weather. ”

“ The more widely-spread loams, according to the opinion of most glacialists, represent the finer mud and silt deposited from the muddy waters of the same period. But the height to which such gravels and loams ascend is so great that those who hold them to be of fluvio-glacial origin have found it difficult to maintain this view. Some writers, indeed, who have not sufficiently considered the weight of the evidence in its favour, have set it aside, and boldly suggested all kinds of wonderful hypotheses in its place. ”

“ Soil.—While clay loams or soils overlying limestone are most desirable, sandy and even gravelly loams may be used, but these latter soils should contain more or less humus and the gravelly soil should not be too coarse. ”

“ The gravelly soil along the coasts requires heavy manuring to make it fruitful, and in the higher arable quarters a rocky soil prevails, better adapted for grass and green crops than for grain. A large extent of the surface is black top reclaimed from the moors, and in some districts loam and clay are found. ”

“ As a greenhouse plant, it is rather tender in regard to damp, though not to cold; therefore, should be kept in the most airy part of the house. It is a native of the Cape, from whence it was introduced in the year 1796, to the Royal Gardens, Kew. By cuttings made in the month of April, it may be preserved, and increased, as it is not a long-lived plant. Loam, with a small portion of old rotten dung, it thrives in most. Our drawing was taken, at the Nursery, Hammersmith, in June 1800. [Pg 69]
[Pg 72] [Pg 71] [Pg 70]
PLATE CLXII.
VERBASCUM FERRUGINEUM.
Rusty-flowered Mullein. ”

“ On the other side they shade off into clays; the heavy loams used to be splendid wheat soils, but are now, like clays, often of little value. But they form pleasant, undulating country, nicely wooded, and dotted over with thatched cottages; the fields are less wet and the roads are rather better than on the clays. ”