192 CALCAREOUS MANURES— APPENDIX. 



" By analysis, one hundred grains of the former contain about thirty grains of com- 

 mon silicious sea sand, with a few grains of fine silt or mud ; the rest is calcareous earth 

 mixed with the animal matter of marine shells. 



" One hundred grains of the latter contain eighty-five grains of the matter of shells, 

 and fifteen grains of an earthy substance, which resembles in color and particles, 

 minute fragments of burnt clay or common red brick. 



" These sands are raised in different parts of Plymouth Sound, or in the harbor ; and 

 are carried up the estuaries in barges ; and from these on horseback, perhaps five or six 

 miles into the country ; of course at a very great expense, yet without discrimination, 

 by men in general, as to their specific qualities. The shelly kind, no doubt brought 

 them into repute, and induced landlords to bind their tenants to the use of them ; but 

 without specifying .the sort — and the bargemen, of course, bring such as they can raise 

 and convey at the least labor and expense. It is probable that the specimen first men- 

 tioned, is above par, as to quality : I have seen sand of a much cleaner appearance, 

 travelling towards the fields of this quarter of the country ; ami near Beddiford, in 

 North Devonshire, I collected a specimen under the operation of " melling" with mould, 

 which contains eighty grains per cent, of clean silicious sand !" — Marshall's West of 

 England, vol. i., page 154. 



It might be inferred from all these proofs of Marshall's knowledge of 

 calcareous earth constituting the real value of marls, that he could scarcely 

 miss the evident corollary to that proposition,' that the valuable operation 

 of calcareous manures is to render soils more calcareous, and that the 

 knowledge of the nature of the manure and the soil would sufficiently in- 

 dicate when the application of the one to the other was judicious or not. 

 But the following expression of opinion {MurshaWs Yorkshire, vol. i., p. 

 377) is not only strongly opposed to those deductions, but to the general 

 purport of all his truths which I have before quoted. 



30. "Nothing at present hut comparative experiments can determine the value of a 

 given lime, to a given soil; and no man can with common prudence lime any land 

 upon a large scale, until a, moral certainty of improvement has been established by ex- 

 perience." 



If this be true, then indeed is there no true or known theory, or estab- 

 lished precepts, for applying either lime or any calcareous manure. It 

 amounts to saying, that every new application is a mere experiment, the 

 result of which cannot even be conjectured from any facts previously known 

 of other soils and other manures. 



31. The next quotation, which is from an editorial article in the Farmers' 

 Journal of July 38, 1823, shows that the old opinion still prevails, that 

 marl is profitable only on sandy lands; which opinion carries with it the 

 inference that it> is the argillaceous quality, rather than the calcareous that 

 operatet;. The editor is remarking on a new agricultural compilation by a 

 Mr. Elkinson, and ridiculing the author for his .solemn annunciation of the 

 truism, (in the editor's opinion,) that "marling on sand is more useful than 

 on clay land." The reputation of Mr. Elkinson, says the editor 



" May remain undisturbed among the farmers of Lincolnshire for a long time, who 

 may never have chanced to meet with the old proverb, or have taken a journey into the 

 sandy district of Norfolk. We really do not know whether it be as old as Jarvais Mark- 

 ham or not : but we have seen the following lines in black letter ; 



He that marls sand, may buy land ; 



He that marls moss, shall have loss ; 



He that marls clay, throws all away ! ' 



The editor then passes to a subject on which his admitted ignorance 

 serves to prove that tlie improvement gained by marling could not be sim- 

 ply the making a soil calcareous— for, upon that ground, when marl has 

 once been plentifully given, and the land afterwards worked poor, there 

 can be neither reason nor profit in a second marling. Yet, as if the mode 

 of operation was altogether unknown, this passage follows : 



