On the use of Shell-Marl 245 



that every time I cultivated a field, that field was im- 

 proved, and not in any degree impoverished by the cul- 

 tivation. By this means, and the Divine assistance, I 

 have effected that improvement of my farm, which is so 

 very striking to the observation of every person ac- 

 quainted with it. I can say nothing as to the compari- 

 son of crops, before and since my improvement ; it has 

 been a progressive thing for many years, and, till I 

 adopted the present plan, I was an experimental farmer, 

 trying every thing I met with in books, or heard of ; so 

 that there is scarce any rotation of crops, or mode of cul- 

 tivation, but what I have tried. 



This, I believe, will answer all your questions, except 

 as to the time when I began to use the marl, and how 

 soon I experienced the beneficial effect of it? — being 

 your fourth question. 



In August, 1805, in digging down a bank on the side 

 of a cove, for the purpose of making a causeway, I ob- 

 served a shelly appearance, which it struck me might 

 improve clay soil ; I took some of it immediately to the 

 house, and putting it into a glass with vinegar, found it 

 effervesced very much ; this determined me to try it as 

 a manure ; accordingly, in September, I carted out about 

 eighty cart loads, and put it on a piece of ground, fallow, 

 preparing for wheat, trying it in different proportions, at 

 the rate of from twenty-seven to about a hundred loads 

 per acre, and the ground was sown in wheat : I could 

 not, myself, be satisfied that there was any difference 

 through the winter and spring, although general Lloyd, 

 who was viewing it with me in the spring, thought he 

 could perceive some difference, in favour of the marl ; but 

 at harvest time, the wheat, though not more luxuriant in 



