HEAVY CLAY SOIL

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 75, 30 March 1933, Page 17

HEAVY CLAY SOIL

METHOD OF TREATMENT

Soil wliiclr is heavy rtnd which contains a largo percentage of clay is often very difficult to get into iirstclass order for'vegetables or flowers. "Wqrking such soil -when it is wet and water-logged is fatal, as when it dries it cakes into hard lumps, which arc extremely difficult to break up. The main thing with heavy soils is to be sure (hat the drainage is perfect so that

surplus ■water; may drain away freely. Heavy dressings of lime are beneficial to such soils if worked in at the time of digging. The introduction of coarse sand will help to make the soil porous, but probably the most useful medium is plenty of vegetable matter, strawy manure, and like substances which, when decayed, form humus. Wood ashes or tho ashes from a rubbish fire are also very beneficial to clayey soils, but nothing will improve the condition much unless one refrains from' tramping over or working the soil when it is wet.

Where hard fiosts aio experienced during the winter the conditions may be greatly improved by digging the ground over and leaving it in a lough state fo, the elements to work on while the sans results will be obtainqd in warmf localities if tho soil is left in a lougl state throughout tho summer.