246 On the use of Shell-Marl. 



growth, or better head, was considerably thicker on the 

 ground ; and, after the wheat was taken off, the ground 

 where the marl had been put was set with white clover, 

 no clover being on the ground on either side of it. The 

 next year, 1806, I discovered it in the drain into the 

 head of the cove, which I immediately ditched, and from 

 the ditch put out seven hundred loads, on the fallow 

 ground ; the effect, as to the wheat and clover, was the 

 same, (this was put, for experiment, at the rate of from 

 forty to a hundred and twenty cart-loads per acre,) 

 though the marl was not of the same kind as the other, 

 but more mixed with sand and surface soil, being taken 

 from the low ground, by ditching, and all mixed toge- 

 ther. I also tried it on corn ground, spread out as above 

 mentioned, and found the effect immediate, as to the 

 com, and in the same manner as above described, as to 

 the wheat sown on the corn ground ; this induced me to 

 persevere in the use of it, which I have done ever since, 

 adopting the mode I mentioned before, and putting it at 

 first from forty to seventy loads per acre, till I have now 

 come down as low as eighteen or twenty loads per acre, 

 going the third time over the ground with it. 



I believe I have now answered all your inquiries, as 

 well as I can, except as to the average comparison of the 

 past and present crops, which I cannot well do, for the 

 reasons above given, and also that my fields are entirely 

 changed, neither containing the same grounds, nor the 

 same quantity of ground in each ; but I believe I shall 

 not be much out of the way, if I say, that I think the 

 soil now capable of producing between two and three 

 times as much, per acre, as it would before I began to 

 use the marl ; and though the marl has not solely pro- 



