74 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 2 



scarcity oi' fuel; and a scheme was accordingly 

 suggested to the trustees of the forfeited estates in 

 Scotland, by the late Lord Kaimes, for the erection 

 of a crushing-niiil, by means of which great 

 masses of rock, when broken into pieces, were re- 

 duced to powder. It was erected in the Ilio'h- 

 laads, at a period when there existed but little 

 spirit for improvement; and we learn from Dr. 

 Anderson, that, 'as there was no public demand 

 for the manure, after the experiment was sufli 

 ciently tried to show that it might be practised with 

 advantage in other places, the mill was suffered to 

 lie unemployed;'* but it is said, in the Survey of 

 the county of Perth, that the machine was swept 

 away by a flood before the benefits of the process 

 could be sufficiently understood. It might, how- 

 ever, be well worth the while of extensive pro- 

 prietors of land which is locally deprived of the 

 assistance of lime,by the want of coals, or peat, to 

 erect similar machines, as few doubts can be en- 

 tertained of their utility; for though uiiburnt lime- 

 stone, when reduced to powder, lias not the same 

 activity as that which iias undergone the action 

 of fire, it is yet a valuable article; and, as a grad- 

 ual improver of the soil, it may even be rendered 

 more useful than quicklime. 



Limestone gravel is also an article among our 

 manures which is deserving of consideration. It 

 consists of masses of stones, pebbles, and some- 

 times of slate and ragstone, resembling a concre- 

 tion of small stones, or gravel, which, when 

 spread upon the ground and mixed with it, 

 gradually disunites and fertilizes the soil, accord- 

 ing as the gravel crumbles down and mixes inti- 

 mately with it. It is chiefly used on siiti' clayey 

 soils, and has been eminently useful in the im- 

 provement of boggy and wet bottoms, from which 

 the water had been previously drained. In many 

 such instances it has been found a better and more 

 lasting manure than marl, mellowing and correct- 

 ing the tenacity of the clay, and producing the 

 white and purple trefoil where sour grass grew 

 before. It is common throughout many parts of 

 Ireland, and in some of the English counties, but 

 it is not generally known in Scotlandf. 



Fish- Shells. 



The shells offish, when burnt, produce the pu- 

 rest species of lime; but they are more commonly 

 employed in a pounded stale, in which they may 

 be so advantageously used, that oyster-shells, 

 when crushed and drilled upon •27-inch ridges, at 

 the rate of 40 bushels per acre, proLluced as fine a 

 crop of turnips, as another field of the same land, 

 manured, for the sake of the experiment, at Mr. 

 Coke's, at Holkham, with farm-dung at the rate 

 of 8 tons per acre; nor was there any apparent 

 difference in the succeeding crops of barley and 

 clover. The powder has also been tried at the 

 same farm, for wheat, in competition with rape- 

 dust — both jiowder and dust at the rate of 4 cwt. 

 per acre, each drilled on a light gravelly loam, in 



* See discription of the mill in his Essays on Agri- 

 culture, vol. i. p. 496, 4th edit : also an engraved plan 

 for a similar machine in the Farmer's Magazine, vol. 

 iii. p. 146. 



■f General Report of Scotland, vol. ii. p. b?,7\ Sur- 

 vey of the County of Dublin, App. p. 17, from Dr. 

 Rutty 's Nat. Hist, of the County. 



both spring and autumn. The crop was not, in 

 either case, measured, but there was no percepti- 

 ble difference in either. The field was afterwards 

 sown with turnips, and the produce proved a good 

 crop*. Yet, notwithstanding the result of these ex- 

 periments, no fair conclusion can be drawn from 

 them regarding their respective efiects, as manure, 

 in that sense in which it is understood to mean nu- 

 triment; for, although lime may excite the powers 

 of other nutritive matter in the soil, and thus pro- 

 mote vegetation, it possesses no substance, within 

 itsellj which can impart nourishment. 



In some places these shells are found in large 

 beds almost entire, and they may be then either 

 ground by passing them through the oil-cake crush- 

 er, or broken into pieces by repeatedly drawing a 

 heavy stone, or iron roller, overtliem, when spread 

 upon a floor of flags or clinkers. There is, howe- 

 ver, a more economical mode of attaining the same 

 object, which is by merely making them the lower 

 tier of a dunghill, or by spreading them at the bot- 

 tom of the fkrin-yurd in which the drainage of the 

 urine will decompose them, and in that slate the 

 manure v/ill possess all the advantage of a com- 

 post with limef. They may also be used whole 

 on slifi'land or clay, on which they act mechani- 

 cally, opening and loosening the clods, and by 

 that means making way for the roots to penetrate 

 their fibres. To such land they will be found very 

 serviceable, and as they moulder gradually, every 

 year a little, until they are quite spent, they wear 

 down slowly, and their effects, when laid on in suf- 

 ficient quantity, are long perceptible; but they 

 should not be applied to sandy ground. 



On many parts of our coasts, shell-sand als» 

 firms a valuable species of manure, for the shells 

 which are deposited at the bottom of the sea be- 

 come there in time decomposed, and the sand 

 which is within reach of the tide, being thrown 

 upon the shore in storms, is, in some places, cart- 

 ed off, and laid upon the land with considerable 

 advantage, though in other parts, the practice 

 seems utterly unknown. Being finely attenuated,, 

 it blends intimately with the sod, and thus produ- 

 ces very sensible efiects in the correction of cold 

 clays and cohesive loams, on which it is usually 

 laid to the amount of about twenty tons per acre. 

 Its chief value will, however, be proportioned to the 

 quantity of calcareous matter, or of shells, which 

 it contains, and this is in some places found to be 

 so large as nearly to ecjual the common properties 

 of lime. J 



It is also found in strata, imbedded in sand- 

 clifls, at the height sometimes of 40 or 50 feet 

 above tl'.e level of the sea, in which places it is. 

 generally denominated a-ag, and was, no doubt, 

 deposited in former ages, ere the water had rece- 

 ded iromthe shore. 



Livie 



Is applied to a great variety of uses : it is em- 

 ployed in medicine as an anti-acid; mortar is com- 



* Extract of a letter from Mr. Blaikie, Steward to 

 Mr. Coke of Holkham, to Sir John Sinclair, dated Sept. 

 18, 1S18. 



t Communications to the Board of Agriculture, vol. vi. 

 art. iii. 



X Survey of Cork, Add., p. 45. 



