270 PPJXCIPLES OF GAEDENING. [CH. VIII. 



that it would mLx fragments ■with the soil that 

 would be liable to contain the eggs of the weevil. 

 The marl approved by Mr. Drurey is probably 

 the calcareous marl which occui's at Thorp Mar- 

 ket, in the hundred of North Erpingham ; but 

 as there is a slight doubt owing to the defici- 

 ency of accuracy in the statement, it affords me 

 an opportunity to impress upon cultivators in 

 general the great importance of employing more 

 certain terms than they usually do. What can be 

 more indefinite than the statement, that marl is a 

 certain preventive of the ambury ? For the very 

 first question suggested to the readers mind is, 

 what marl is intended? Is it a chalky-marl, or 

 a clay-marl ? Is it a mixture of chalk and clay, 

 or of chalk and silicious sand ? for all these va- 

 rieties of marl are known. The want of a cor- 

 rect nomenclature is one of the drawbacks and 

 deficiencies checking the improving progi'ess of the 

 soil's cultivation. Few have ever thought much upon 

 this point, and still smaller is the number who 

 duly appreciate its importance. Yet it is an in- 

 controvertible fact, that no art or science can 

 advance rapidly imtil its technical terms are fixed, 

 terse, expressive, and generally understood. Che- 

 mistry attained a greater aid to its advancement 

 by the introduction of its new nomenclature by 

 Lavoisier, than by any series of discoveries that 



