1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



707 



tumbiils, or wheelbarrows. The exposure of mad 

 to the air before spreading it, is always useful, but 

 not indispensable.* 



On a moist soil, it is expedient to precede the 

 marling by a deep ploughing, because that then 

 is there offered to the water, a thicker permeable 

 layer of earth; there will be less injury from the 

 excess of moisture, and the layer meliorated and 

 mellowed by marl, will also be deeper. 



The marl ought to be placed upon the ground 

 in parallel lines, in small and equal heaps, at 20 feet 

 distance between the heaps and between the lines. 

 Advantage should be taken of the iirst leisure time 

 in good weather, to spread the marl, as regularly 

 as possible. After some days, and alterations of 

 sunshine and rain, the ground should be passed 

 over again to equalize the marl, and to make 

 what has crumbled to powder cover as much 

 ground as possible; the amount and quickness of 

 the good eifects depend much on this care. The 

 layer of marl, is then left to be aired upon 

 the ground as long as possible: there is established 

 a reciprocal action, by aid of the air, and atmos- 

 pherical variations, of the surface of the soil and 

 the marl, which prepares lor the eflects — hastens, 

 and gives them more energy. 



Marl ought not to be covered by the plough ex- 

 cept when it is well crumbled, and almost dry. In 

 burying it wet, it resumes its adhesion and forms 

 lumps, and it cannot be diffused through the soil. 

 That, ploughing also should be shallow, because 

 the marl is then kept in the layer of vegetable 

 mould, tor the benefit of the succeeding culture. 



When the marling has been too heavy, by a 

 deeper ploughing we may bring to the surface the 

 earth not marled, which being mixed, dimin shes 

 the proportion ol marl. This operation, by increa- 

 sing the depth of the tilth, lessens the injuries 

 produced to the soil by heavy rains. 



Marl is used with advantage upon winter crops, 

 as well as those of spring, ft is very usefully em- 

 ployed in compost, whether with farm-yard ma- 

 nure, or with mould or sods. However, these 

 composts if made with clay marl are a little more 

 troublesome to make and to arrange afterwards, 

 than if made with stony marl. The English 

 make much use of marl in this mode, especially 

 when it is distant from the fields where its applica- 

 tion is wanted — because for marl, as well as for 

 lime, by composts the effects of small doses ate 

 much increased. 



The eflects of marl are not always very percep- 

 tible upon the first crops; and that occurs when it 

 has been spread with little care, or has not been 

 mingled with the soil by proper tillage — when it 

 has heen buried [wet] by the rain, or by a too deep 

 ploughing — or finally, when there has followed 

 the dressing an uninterrupted succession of rainy, 

 or of dry weather. It is neeessary there should 

 be an alternation of heat and moisture that the 

 combinations, (by the aid of which marl acts on 

 vegetables,) may be formed in the soil. 



* The advantage stated to be derived from letting 

 the heaps of marl stand to be crumbled, belongs to a 

 clayey or chalky texture, and very rarely, and then but 

 slightly, to our marl of fossil shells in Virginia. 



Of the effects rif marl upon vegetation, and upon 

 the soil. 



The effects of marl upon the soil resemble much 

 those of lime: it is still the creation of calcareous 

 sod and its products. Marl promotes the growth 

 of all the families of cultivated plants: however, 

 its effect upon the grains of small culture [grains 

 menus] and upon lbrage crops, is more considera- 

 ble than upon cereal plants. It increases, by at 

 least, twice the amount of the seed,onan average, 

 the product of winter grains— but it almost dou- 

 bles the products of the smaller crops of barley, 

 Indian corn, and clover. The marling of oata 

 produces a vigorous growth; but the leafing 

 time is prolonged, and less grain is formed. 

 Winter wheat, sown par h sec, is subject to lodge, 

 as on calcareous soil: in place of the grain being 

 plump, yellow, and thin skinned, as on limed land, 

 marled land produces grain that is more long, 

 grayish, dull, and which yields more bran. Sandy 

 marl yields more grain— clay marl more stalk or 

 forage, t 



The dogstooth, Vavoine a chapelet, the bent 

 grasses [agnostis] the small grasses, pests of cul- 

 ture on stlicious soils, disappear after marling, and 

 2ive place to the small leguminous and other 

 plants of calcareous soils. 



French agriculture makes little use of marl on 

 meadows: English agriculture, on the contrary, 

 uses it with advantage on pasture land and the 

 meadows not irrigated. But it i6 rather the marl 

 in compost, than the marl alone, which serves for 

 this use— and the stony, rather than the argilla- 

 ceous marl. 



The characters which marled soils exhibit are 

 very similar to those of limed soils, and naturally 

 calcareous f-oils — but more similar to the latter. 

 The doses given by limings. which are scarcely a 

 tenth of the quantities of carbonate of lime ap- 

 plied in marlings, do not so essentially change the 

 appearance of the soil. The marled soil, like the 

 calcareous, hardens and contracts with drought — 

 and then splits and crumbles with rain or heavy 

 dews.} Marled land acquires a reddish coIor,^arid 



tThe last sentence serves to explain and correct the 

 preceding passage, and to accord with the truth stated 

 in the first lines of the paragraph. that both liming and 

 marling are merely the creating a calcureous soil — and 

 to maintain the plain inference, that the etl'ects on 

 vegetation, should be the same. The small increase 

 attributed above (and in other parts of the text,) to 

 marling wheat, &c. compared to the far greater known 

 effects in Virginia, from lighter dressings, show that 

 the soils in France are not so deficient in lime, and 

 therefore not so fit to be benefited by the application 

 of marl. Again — if the grain of wheat is in truth 

 made less perfect by marling than by liming, the dif- 

 ference of effect must be caused not by the marl whio'i 

 acts as carbonate of lime, (chemically,) but by the ex- 

 cess of the dressing, which acts mechanically, and 

 merely as so much clay or sand, according to the tex- 

 ture of the marl. 



JThese are additional marks of a soil too highly cal- 

 careous, or toohraviiy marled. No such edects follow 



