168 



CALCAREOUS MANURES— PRACTICE. 



to dig in and throw out from, and to sink them to 1 5 or 16 feet, by throwing 

 the lower half on a table, whence another man will throw it to the level 

 where the carts can stand to be loaded. Then each separate pit will soon 

 be completed, and out of danger of bad weather. And if flooded before 

 being finished, the loss of the marl, then remaining not dug, will not be 

 important in so small an excavation. 



As marl shows usually on a hill-side, but little earth has to be moved off 

 to uncover the first place for digging. But the next, and each successive 

 cover of earth, will be more thick, until it may be necessary to abandon 

 that place and begin again elsewhere. But the quantity of covering earth 

 need not be regarded as a serious obstacle, if it is not thicker than the 

 marl below it. While that is the case, one pit completed will receive all 

 the earth thrown from an equal space, for commencing another. When 

 this proportion of earth is exceeded, it is necessary to carry it farther, by 

 either wheel-barrows or scrapers, and the labor is tliereby greatly increased. 



For any extensive operation, it is much cheaper to take off a cover of 

 earth twelve feet thick to obtain marl of equal depth, than if both the co- 

 vering earth and marl were only three feet each. Whether the cover be 

 thick or thin, two parts of the operation are equally troublesome, viz. to 

 take off the mat of roots, and perhaps some large trees on the surface soil, 

 and to clean off the surface of the marl, which is sometimes very irregular. 

 The greater part of the thickest cover would be much easier to work. But 

 the most important advantage in taking off' earth of ten or more feet in 

 thickness, is saving digging by causing the earth to come down by its own 

 weight. If time can be allowed to aid this operation, the driest earth will 

 mostly fall, by being repeatedly undermined a little. But this is greatly 

 facilitated by the oozing water, which generally fills the earth lying imme- 

 diately on beds of wet marl. In uncovering a bed of this description, for 

 one of my early operations, where the marl was to be dug fourteen feet, 

 and ten to twelve feet of earth to remove, my labor was made ten-fold 

 heavier by digging altogether. The surface bore living trees, and was full 

 of roots — there was enough stone to keep the edges of the hoes bat- 

 tered — and small springs and oozing water came out every where, after 

 digging a few feet deep. A considerable part of the earth was a tough, 

 adhesive clay, kept wet throughout, and which it was equally difficult to get 

 on the shovels, and to get rid of Some years after, another pit was un- 

 covered on the same bed, and under like circumstances, except that the 

 time was the last of summer, and there was less water oozing through the 

 earth. This digging was begun at the lowest part of the earth, which was 

 a layer of sand, kept quite wet and soft by the watei- oozing through it. 

 With gravel shovels, this was easily cut under from one to two feet along 

 the whole length of the old pit, and, as fast as was desirable, the upper 

 earth, thus undermined, fell into the old pit ; and afterwards, when that did 

 not take place of itself, the fallen earth was easily thrown there by shovels. 

 As the earth fell separated into small but compact masses, it was not much 

 affected by the water, even when it remained through the night before be- 

 ing shoveled away. No digging was required, except this continued sho- 

 veling out of the lowest sand stratum ; and whether clay, or stones, or roots, 

 were mixed with the falling earth, they were easy to throw off. The nu- 

 merous roots, which were so troublesome in the former operation, were 

 now an advantage ; as they supported the earth sufficiently to let it fall 

 only gradually and safely ; and before the roots fell, they were almost clear 

 of earth. The whole body of earth, notwithstanding all its difficulties, 

 was moved off as easily as the driest and softest could have been by dig- 

 ging altogether. 



