362 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



6. SEA-SAND. In some parts of Ireland and England, near 

 the sea-coast, very great quantities of sea-dredge or sand are used, 

 probably very much of the same character as the muscle-bed, 

 much used in some parts of New England, and other maritime 

 parts of the United States. 



In Ireland, principally on the western and northern coasts, 

 immense quantities of this dredging are obtained ; and the num 

 ber of one-horse carts, especially near Cork, which I found en 

 gaged in the transportation of it, was remarkable. Two kinds 

 of it are obtained, one full of shells, with their living tenants, 

 and consequently abounding in animal matter. &quot; The silicious 

 sand usually amounts to from thirty to sixty per cent ; the shells 

 to from twenty to fifty, and, beside carbonate, yield some phos 

 phate of lime and magnesia. There is, generally, from three to 

 six per cent, animal matter, which yields nitrogen by its decom 

 position ; and from five to ten per cent, of salt water, which holds 

 in solution common salt, and other ingredients of sea-water.&quot; * 



There is another variety of sand found in certain places on the 

 western coast of Ireland, mixed with a substance resembling 



lime. In its principal action, it has no right to be called a manure, for a manure 

 consists in the restoration of ingredients taken from the soil. But lime affords a 

 key to rob the soil anew, so easily applied that we often find a farmer, who works 

 slovenly, content himself with the application of lime, and by its means obtain the 

 same results accompanied, however, by a destruction of property that ho would 

 by the drainage of the land, and by a proper system of rotation. Hence, we find 

 it often substituted for the drain ; for the disintegration, which the air should 

 effect in a drained field, is obtained by lime in one uridrained. But the system, 

 in the latter case, is a ruinous one to the landlord, and even to the tenant, if lie 

 remain on the soil ; and the cause is obvious, when you consider that he applies 

 the lime without any knowledge of the quantity which should be used ; and not 

 following it up by a proper rotation, first to take up the liberated potash, and then 

 the liberated silica and phosphates, a large part of the valuable ingredients of the 

 soil is washed away without any benefit to it. 



&quot; I will merely refer to one part of the practice, with regard to the application 

 of lime, because it will confirm still further, that its principal action is what I 

 have described. A favorite mode of applying lime is to mix it, while hot. with 

 earth, and after it has slacked itself, to spread the mixture on the field. By using 

 the lime in this state, you produce a powerful effect in liberating the alkalies of 

 the earth with which it was mixed, so that, when you spread it upon the field, you, 

 in fact, spread with it a stock of nutriment in immediate readiness for the plant.&quot; 



I hope it will not be deemed presumptuous in me, to say that these remarks are 

 extremely rational, sensible, and to the point. The subject, however, is not re 

 lieved of all its difficulties. 



* Kane s Resources of Ireland. 



