188 CALCAREOUS MANURES— APPENDIX. 



lighter, and consists entirely of calcareous matter, (the broken and partially decayed' 

 shells of fish,) which may be applied as a top-dressing to wheat and grass, when it would 

 be less advantageous to use quicic-lime." [This is the kind of manure referred (o in 

 extract 5, and there more particularly described] " In Lancashire and Cheshire, clay, 

 or red marl, is the great source of fertilization, &c."— " The quantify used is e:iormous ; 

 in many cases about three hundred middling cart loads per acre, and the fields are some- 

 times so thickly covered as to have the appearance of a red soiled fallow, fresh plough- 

 ed." — Sinclair''s Code of ^^riculiure, Jlmerican ed. (Hartford) p. 138. 



This account of the Lancashh-e improvements made by red clay marl 

 closes with the statement that " the effects are represented to be beneficial 

 in the highest degree," which is fully as exact an account of profit, or in- 

 creased production, as we can obtain of any other marling. Throughout, 

 there is no hint as to the calcareous constituents of the soil or the manure, 

 or whether either rock, clay or slate marls, generally, are valuable for that 

 or for other reasons ; nor indeed could we guess that they contained any 

 calcareous earth, but for their being classed with many other substances, 

 under the general head of calcareous manures. 



19. " The means of ameliorating the texture of chalky soils, are either by the applica- 

 tion of clayey and sandy loams, pure clay, or marl." — "The chalk stratum sometimes 

 lies upon a thick vein of black tenacious marl, of a rich quality, which ought to be dug 

 up and mixed with the chalk." — Code of Agriculture,^. 19. 



20. Dickson's Farmer''s Companion. — The author recommends " argil- 

 laceous marl" for the improvement of chalky soils ; and for sandy soils, 

 " where the calcareous principle is in sufficient abundance, argillaceous 

 marl, and clayey loams," are recommended as manures. 



21. " Chalky loam. The best manure for this soil is clay, or argillaceous marl, if 

 clay cannot be had ; because this soil is defective principally in the argillaceous ingredi- 

 ent."— ^rrwara on Manures, p 80. 



The evident intention and effect of the marling recommended in all the 

 three last extracts, is to diminish the proportion of calcareous earth in the 

 soil. 



22. In a Traveller's Notes of an agricultural tour in England, in 1811, 

 which is published in the third volume of the Edinburgh Farmers' Maga- 

 zine, the following passages relate to Mr. Coke's estate, Holkhani, and to 

 Norfolk generally. 



" Holkham. — The soil here is naturally very'poor, being a mixture of sand, chalk, and 

 flint stones, with apparently little mixture of argillaceous earth— the subsoil, chalk or 

 limestone every where." Page 4S6. " As the soil of the territory [of Norfolk generally] 

 through which I passed, seems to have a sufficient mixture of calcareous earth niJurally, I 

 learn they do not often lime their lands ; bur clay marl has been found to have the most 

 beneficial consequences on most of the Norfolk soils." p. 487. 



23. " In Norfolk, they seem to value clay more than marl, probably because their sandy 

 soils already contain calcareous paHs." — Kirwan on Manures, p. 87. 



From this and the preceding quotation it would follow, that the great and 

 celebrated improvements in Norfolk, made by marling, had actually ope- 

 rated to lessen the calcareous proportion of the soil, instead of increasing it. 

 Or, (as may be deduced from what will follow,) if so scientific and dili- 

 gent an inquirer as Kirwan was deceived on this very important point, it 

 furnishes additional proof of the impossibility of drawing correct conclu- 

 sions on this subject from European books— when it is left doubtful, whether 

 the most extensive, the most profitable, and the most celebrated improve- 

 ments by " marling" in Europe, have in fact served to make the soil more 

 or less calcareous. 



Most of the extracts which I have presented, are from British agricul- 

 turists of high character and authority. If such writers as these, while 



