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speak of the drift and sea sand, which is of admirable virtue and use inmixtures, and to be spread on some lands, because it has been describedso accurately already in a just discourse upon another occasion, by an ex-perienced Gentleman dwelling in the western parts, where this manure isperfectly understood, and recommended to more general use.
As of sands, so are there different sorts of clays, and of as differentcolours, whereof there is a kind so obstinate and ill-natured, as almostnothing will subdue; and another so voracious and greedy, as nothingwill satiate, without exceeding industry, because it ungratefully devoursall that is applied to it, turning it into as arrant clay as itself. Someclays are more pinguid than others ; some more slippery; all of them te-nacious of water on the surface, where it stagnates and chills the plantwithout penetrating; and in dry seasons costive, and hardening with thesun and wind; most of them pernicious and untractable.
The unctuous and fatter clay frequently lies upon the other, having
oftentimes a basis of chalk beneath it ; but neither is this worth any thingtill it‘,be loosened and rendered more kind, so as to admit of the air andheavenly influences: in a word, the blue, white, and red clays (if strong)are all unkind; the stony and looser sort is yet sometimes tolerable ; butthe light Brick Earth does very well with most fruit-trees.
I had almost forgotten Marsh-Earth , which, though of all other seem-ingly the most churlish, a little after it is first dug and dried, (when itsoon grows hard and chaps) may, with labour and convenient exposure,be brought to an excellent temper; for being the product of rich slime,and the sediment of land-waters and inundations, which are usually fat,as also the rotting of sedge, yea, and frequently of prostrated trees, rottedand now converted into Mould , it becomes a very profitable land; butwhether I may reckon this among the natural Earths, I do not contend.
Of Loams and Brick-Earths we have several sorts, some approachingto clay, others nearer marl; differing also in colour; and if it be not toorude mingled in just proportion with other Mould , an excellent ingre-dient in all sorts of Earth , and so welcome to the husbandman, and espe-cially the gardener, as nothing does well without a little dash of it.