D SOIL. 



the thin skin of earth. The rock, though usually 

 stratified, has no uniform dip, but trends to different 

 directions ; in some places it appears as if immense 

 sheets of semifluid matter had been pushed out of 

 the station it had settled in, by some other or later- 

 formed heavy-moving mass, or met with an im- 

 pediment, and so rolled up : that these sheets had 

 not fully hardened at the time of being moved 

 is yet made probable by the whole crystallization 

 of the mass being interrupted; so that no part 

 adheres firmly, but separates into small shattery 

 fragments when struck. This substance we burn 

 in very large quantities for building purposes, and 

 for manure, which, by the facility which we have 

 of obtaining small coal, is rendered at the low rate 

 of three-pence a bushel at the kiln. Our farmers, 

 availing themselves of this cheap article, use con- 

 siderable quantities, composted with earth, for 

 their different crops, at the rate of not less than 

 a hundred bushels to the acre. This is a favourite 

 substance for their potato land. The return in 

 general is not so large as when grown in manure 

 from the yard ; but the root is said to be more 

 mealy, and better flavoured. 



The utility of lime as manure consists in loosen- 

 ing the tenacious nature of some soils ; rendering 

 them more friable and receptive of vegetable fibres : 

 it especially facilitates the dissolution and putre- 

 faction of animal and vegetable substances, which 

 are thus more readily received and circulated in 



