707 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



No. 12 



presents an open or spongy [cariee] surface, in 

 place of the white color and glazed surface of the 

 white lands [terrain blanc] The soil, made mel- 

 low, may be tilled in every sense — crumbles with 

 the first rain, and becomes more accessible, as 

 well as the plants which it bears, to all atmos- 

 pheric influences. The roots traverse the marled 

 and more permeable soil more easily — and the jui- 

 ces which lorm the sap can circulate, and conse- 

 quently be more easily absorbed by the roots. 

 It may be well conceived that all these new quali- 

 ties render the soil, and its products, better. We 

 refer, for the balance of this subject, to what we 

 have said upon lime, as the same will apply very 

 nearly to marl.* 



Of second marlings. 



We now arrive at a long disputed subject, and 

 upon which it will be perhaps more easy to be un- 

 derstood. 



Second marlings do not suit, and ought to be 

 long deferred, where the first has been abundant. 

 If they have not succeeded in Ain, in Isere, in 

 Yonne, it is because in the first marlings there 

 were applied doses which furnished to the soils, 4, 

 5, 6. 8, 10 per cent, of carbonate of lime — any of 

 which proportions is mnch beyond what was want- 

 ing, and often beyond what was advantageous, and 

 which addition has been held by the soil for an in- 

 definite time. But in places where marling has 

 become a regular operation of agriculture, we may 

 take points of departure which will enlighten us. 

 In the marlings the most regular and the most an- 

 cient of the classic husbandry of the department of 

 the North, the soil receives every 20 years on a:i 

 average, 163 hectolitres [to the hectare] of stony 

 marl, which contains three-fourths at least of car- 

 bonate of lime. This then is 6 hectolitres a year, 

 of carbonate of lime, which is given to the Flem- 

 ish soil, to make it continue to produce with the 

 same energy. t 



A quantity which would suffice for argillacious 

 Goils, is too heavy for light soils. We have seen 

 that they give in Sologne every 10 years, from 240 

 to 300 cubic feet, to the hectare, of marl which con- 

 tains 40 per cent, of carbonate of lime. This is 

 4 hectolitres, a year, of the calcareous principle. It 

 woukHseem then, that the soil and vegetation ab- 

 sorb, orconsume, from 4 to 6 hectolitres of carbonate 

 of lime, to the hectare a year. Our second mar- 

 lings should then be given in such manner as to 

 furnish to the soil for each year, from 4 to 6 hecto- 

 litres of carbonate of lime, according to the consis- 

 tence of the soil, in the operations which are re- 

 peated every 20 or 30 years. (These results 

 would doubtless simplify much the question of 

 marling, and its application to soils of different na- 



a merely sufficient dressing — and on the contrary, 

 marled land is enabled much better to resist the inju- 

 ries of drought, as well as of moisture, 



* See M. Puvis' Essay on the use of lime, in Nos. 

 6 and 7, of the Farmers' Register, Vol. III. 



t Rather less than 6 bushels to the acre. See the 

 exact measures of the hectolitre and hectare, and com- 

 pared with the bushel and acre, p. 363, note, Vol. Ill 

 Farmers' Register. 



tures.) The life of man is generally too short to 

 enable him to be sufficiently enlightened by com- 

 parisons — and one has an immense advantage 

 when a great work, like marling, can be placed 

 upon the exact results of long continued and en- 

 lightened practice, such as we can now refer to. 



If we compare this result to that which we have 

 found for second limings, we will conclude that the 

 soil and its plants seem to demand a greater quan- 

 tity of carbonate of lime — than of lime, since 3 

 hectolitres of lime, on an average, suffice for the 

 hectare, in place of 5, on an average, of carbonate 

 of lime, which quantity is required lor second mar- 

 lings. But subtracting the proportion of carbo- 

 nic acid from the carbonate of lime, there is given 

 3 hectolitres of lime in this case, as well as in the 

 other; which is a very remarkable coincidence, and 

 a guarantee of the correctness of our lights upon 

 lime and marl. J 



We will remark that with the dose of marl 

 which we have advised, giving 3 per cent, of car- 

 bonate of lime to the soil, a ploughed depth of 4 

 inches, receives 960 cubic feet of marl, or 320 hec- 

 tolitres; which would furnish, for more than 60 

 years, an annual consumption of 5 hectolitres of 

 carbonate of lime. At the end ot* 40 or 50 years, 

 the first dressing, enleebled, would demand a se- 

 cond marling, which would be sufficient, if, at 

 most, of half the amount of the first dressing. 



The dose of marl which we advise as seemingly 

 the most suitable for our moist soils, might then 

 [tor the dry.] according to circumstances, with 

 much economy, be lessened by half:— perhaps by 

 two-thirds; it would still be almost triple the dose 

 that is applied in Sologne. 



We are far from admitting that all the calcare- 

 ous compound disappears in the interval of time, 

 which separates the successive marlings. A part 

 of it is carried away by the waters — another part 

 buried by deep ploughing— and a still greater part 

 enters into new combinations: but still there cer- 

 tainly remains a part at the end of the whole pe- 

 riod. 



The formation and the products of vegetables, 

 on a hectare of limed land, of which the products 

 are comparable, do not take up, as we have seen, 

 but half a hectolitre a year.f We think then, 

 that with the doses of the first and second marlings, 

 which we still advise, rather than with those"of 

 the limings, the soil will arrive at containing such 

 an amount of calcareous principle, that nothing 

 will be gained by augmenting it; and which wifl 



X This is a mistake of calculation, which is not a lit- 

 tle remarkable, to be made by our author. The hec- 

 tolitre is a measure of capacity — and the lime is mea- 

 sured by it in the stone, not slaked. Of course, though 

 weighing less by about two-fifths, than when carbonate 

 of lime, or before being burnt, it does not measure less 

 on account of being deprived of its carbonic acid. But 

 though reached by incorrect reasoning in this particu- 

 lar, the author's conclusion is sound, that a certain 

 quantity of lime given in marl, is just as fertilizing as 

 if given alone, or in any other form. The usual dif- 

 ference in favor of the early action of lime, is owing to 

 its more perfect separation of parts, and its quicker dif- 

 fusibility through the soil. 



f See p. 390, Vol. III. Farmers' Register. 



