180 Progress of Agricultural Knoivlcdgo 



a farm also with a stony subsoil — it did permanent mischief. 

 The trial, however, can be easily made, as many common ploughs, 

 if the mouldboard be removed, will serve as well as one made for 

 the purpose. Altogether, though we must not speak too confi- 

 dently of subsoil-ploughing, I cannot but hope that we shall pro- 

 bably have to thank Mr. Smith of Deanston for this invention, as 

 well as for the zeal and ability by which he has succeeded in re- 

 storing the ancient English practice of thorough-draining. 



Hitherto we have considered only one defect of land — too great 

 cohesiveness, and consequent retention of too much moisture. 

 There is an opposite fault, however, well known to farmers — too 

 great looseness. This fault may be seen on tracts absolutely 

 barren, as on Bagshot Heath, or on fields under culture, which 



are termed blowino: sands, because the surface-sand drifts in lii^h 



. . . ~ 



winds. In different degrees it is a common fault in land, and 



shows itself by thinness of the corn-crop, shortness of the straw 

 and of the ear. Formerly, indeed, rye was grown on such land 

 instead of w'heat. Folding with sheep, pressing and shallow 

 ploughing, diminish the evil, but do not remedy it. The practice 

 of our ancestors was to cover such land with marl, which is 

 usually a strong clay, containing a great deal of lime. Marl was 

 said indeed to benefit the land at first, but to injure it afterwards — 

 to be ''good for the father, but bad for the son," This injury, 

 however, arose, I believe, from improvidence ; marl w^as found to 

 act without dung at first, and the fields which had been marled 

 were consequently tilled without dung until their soil was com- 

 pletely exhausted. It fell into disrepute, and many farmers are 

 perhaps not aware that it is still used largely in England. I 

 have been surprised to find, in the successive numbers of our 

 Journal, how often it is mentioned casually by members of our 

 Society. To take first the most striking example : the improve- 

 ment of the late Lord Leicester's property, as described by Lord 

 Spencer.* I doubt if that lamented nobleman, with all his enter- 

 prise, could have fed oxen where rabbits had previously browsed, 

 as was his just boast, unless those sandy commons had first been 

 made solid with marl. It is used also largely in Bedfordshire on a 

 yellow sand about Woburn.f The practice is general, I believe, 

 in Norfolk, and also in Suffolk, where, at some recent agricultural 

 meeting, a prize was given to the farmer who had drawn the largest 

 quantity in one year — and that quantity, if I am not mistaken, was 

 10,000 cart-loads. It is mentioned by Mr. DugdaleJ as existing 

 in Warwickshire ; and we have a very good account of an entire 

 farm which had been marled, at Sheriff Hutton § in Yorkshire. 



* Journal, vol. i. p. 1. -i- Ibid., vol. iii. p. 233. 



% Ibid., vol. 11. p. 259. § Ibid., vol. ii. p. 67. 



