( U4- ) 



Where the length of -carriage has not forbid the ufe of 

 chalk, it has indubitably produced for a time upon the tough- 

 heavy clays in this county, very beneficial confequences ; 

 the pra6lice however, begins to be much deplored, and that 

 by very obferving and able perfons', on a fuppofition, that 

 the old chalked lands, at this day, are equally obftinate, 

 and far more fteril than they otherwife would have been, if 

 chalk had never been applied. 



With chalk, as with lime, and all other calcarious earth, 

 in a proper ftate, animal and vegetable matter, will to a 

 certain degree combine, and in that combination produce 

 fermentation and vapour, or form fomething that fhall be 

 foluble in water : in either cafe, there is evidently a che- 

 mical a£lion, the efFedls of which, contribute very largely 

 to the powers of vegetation. 



So long alfo as the chalk remains in an imperfe£lly difTolved 

 flate in the foil, it afts as it were mechanically, and renders 

 the tough flrong clays and tile earths more tradable. But 

 the whole of the chalk is capable of being carried down- 

 wards, by its fpeclfic gravitation or folution in water; an 

 efFe61:, which after a few^years, and in every foil that muft 

 nejeflarily take place, and the land will then be completely 

 wafhed, and freed from the calcarious earth ; here the me- 

 chanical aftion of the chalk muft ceafe, nor may it be ad- 

 vifeable to renew it, quoad its beneficial effefts mechanically, 

 as it is prefumed, and not without good reafon, that in like 

 manner with lime, it has a tendency to lock upa large portion 

 of vegetable food in an infoluble Hate, but capable of being 

 dilTolved with fome acid or other alkali, to which the in- 

 foluble matter may have a greater affinity than to that of 

 calcareous earth; an opinion which is ftrongly fupported by 

 the preference generally given to foperS wade lees, and 



alhlip 



