Is Shet.i> Mat?l a Fertilizer? 271 



FERTILIZTAIOK. 



IS SHELL MAHL A FERTILIZER? 



BY HENRY MILES, OF MONKTON. 



To assist us in this inquiry we have a few important 

 points well established, viz. : 



No soil is productive which does not contain a consider- 

 able proportion of carbonate of lime. 



A productive soil may be reduced to barrenness by abstract- 

 ing its lime by incessant cropping. 



An unproductive soil may, in many cases, be rendered 

 productive by the addition of lime. 



We have a large amount of carbonate of lime in the sev- 

 eral deposits of shell marl distributed over the State, and 

 this costs nothing but the labor of digging and drawing. It 

 is not an " Emma mine," that promises much and yields 

 but little. 



Many working farmers adhere to the old maxim : '• Early 

 rising and hard work are the chief things in the improve- 

 ment of agriculture." We do not reject this as wholly 

 untrue, neither can we insist that hard work injudiciously 

 applied will produce the desired improvement. The intelli- 

 gent farmer knows that there is no real conflict between 



