Chap.VIIL OFMANURES. ^ 27 



nating, or want of current in the water, the rich, particles carried 

 down by it have time to fubfide. r-^ :s!tov/ 



But of all the manures for fandy foils, none is fo good as marh. 

 There are many different kinds and colours of it* feverally diflin- 

 guilhed by many writers ; but their virtue is the fame ; arid they 

 may all be ufed upon the fame ground, without the fmalleft dif- 

 ference in their effecl. ■ 



The colour is, either 7'edy hroivn, yellow, blue, grcj, or mix'd. 

 It is to be known by its pure and un-compounded nature. There 

 are many marks to diftinguiHi it by ; fuch as its breaking into little 

 fquare bits ; its falling eafily to pieces, by the force of a blov/, or 

 upon being expofed to the fun, and the frofl: ; its feeling fat and 



oily, and Ihining when 'tis dry. But the moft unerring way to 



judge of marie, and know it from any other fubftance, which may 

 appear like it, is, to break a piece as big as a large nutmeg, and, 

 when itis quite dry, drop it into a glafs of clear water,' where, if it 

 be right, it will diflblve and crumble, as it were to dufl, in a very 

 little time, fhooting up many fparkles to the furface of the water. 



In many places, marie difcovers itfelf to the moft negligent eye j 

 efpecially upon the fides of broken hills, or deep hollow roads, in 

 moft counties in England. Many rivers poffefs an inconceivable 

 treafure, on both their fides, which is plunder'd by every flood. 

 Boggy lands frequently cover it ; and, in fuch, it feldom lies above 

 three feet deep. 'Tis fomev/hat lower under ftift' clays, and marJJjy 

 Icuel grounds. Vio^ fandy lands abound in it, in their loweft places, 

 at fometimes three feet depth, and fometimes feven, nine, or more. 

 As for the marie itfelf, 'tis feldom you can find its depth ; for, 

 when the upper cruft of the earth is once removed, all you can fee, 

 or dig, is niarle, as deep as ever you can go. There are few, it 

 any, inftances of a marle-pit's being exhaufted. 



Nothing is more common, in moft places, than to find the 

 ditches which inclofe a field, dug down fo deep that they have 

 penetrated fix or feven inches into a bed of marie that lies under 

 them, without the farmer's taking any notice of it, tho' the pro- 

 digious fiiooting and increafe of the grafs which is put forth by the 

 marle thrown up upon the fides of the bank, might, one would 

 think, be a means of difcovering it. Where the marie is thus, by 

 accident, difclofed, it not only turfs the fides and tops of the banks, 

 and thereby fecures them againft all injuries of weather, but makes 

 the grafs grow to fuch furprizing length and thicknefs, that, when 



E 2 beaten 



