2$: OF MA N U R E S. Partlr 



beaten down by winds, it hangs along as if it thatch'd the earth 

 which nourifh'd it, and carries off the rain, without permitting 

 any confiderable quantity to enter through it. " ' 



The author of the Neiv Syjle7n dj Agriculture, p. ii8. tthS^-'' 

 mends, as a very eafy and infaUible method of difcovering whether 

 there is any marie in places it may be thought to lie under, to have' 

 three augers made, of near an inch diameter, with an iron handle 

 fix'd crols-wile to each ; the bitts of thefe augers to be pretty large, 

 and tenacious of what they pierce. One of them may be three feet 

 long, the fecond fix, and the third ten. When you would try the 

 place you have hopes from, carry thither thefe augers, and let a 

 ferv^ant take the firfl:, and wring it into the earth, by twifting 

 at each end of the handle. He mull draw it out as often as it has 

 pierced a new depth of fix inches, to cleanfe and examine the bitt, 



and obferve what he draws up in it. If you find nothing but 



common earth within the reach of this firll: auger, let him thruft 

 the fecond down the hole which was made by the former, and 

 proceed in the fame manner, till he has wrung this alfo up to its 

 handle; and then let him do the fame by the third auger; always 

 remembering to examine the auger bitt after each new progrefs of 

 lix inches. 



By this means you will certainly, and without charge or hazard,' 

 difcover not only what marie is under your foil, but whether any other 

 thing of value lies concealed there, fuch as chalk, coals, fuller's 

 earth, or quarries of flone, many of which are hid, and quite 

 \uithought of, in places where their value, was it known, is ten 

 times more than that of the whole eftate which covers them. 



Our author relates on this occafion, a ftory of a Dutchman who; 

 was call: aw ay upon the coaft of Norfolk, and carried before a juftice 

 of peace, who, undcrftanding that he had /kill in draining, took him 

 one morning into a field in which he had begun a work of that na-' 

 turCi .The Dutchman perceived a whitiOi kind of earth, which had' 

 been caft out of one of the trenches, and examined it with more 

 than ordinary earneftnefs. The juftice alked him, if it were of any 

 value in Holland .f" The failor anfwered, that it was fold in his coun-: 

 try at an extraordinary rate; that it came to Delft, and other place's, ' 

 down the Rhine, from a little village about twenty miles above 

 Frankfort, and was ufed for making the finell fort of earthen-ware. 

 The jullice thereupon fent a lample of it to Holland, and finding 

 the matter exadlly as it had been reprefented, became a merchant of 

 2 this 



