110 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 2 



air of unhealthy countries, can take their rise only 

 from the (around; lor the soil alone distinguishes 

 an unhealthy country from the neighboring regions 

 which -are healthy. All other circumstances of the 

 atmoBjih(/re, temperature, its variations, and cli- 

 mate, aw; common to both; the unhealthy country 

 is constantly exchanging its vitiated air for the 

 pure air of its neighbors. It follows then, of course, 

 that the unhealthy exhalations of the soil should 

 be constantly renewing the injurious principle 

 which beneficial winds tend to carry elsewhere. 



We will add to the foregoing remarks, that this 

 calcareous principle, possessing a great force of ab- 

 sorption on the constituent parts of the atmosphere, 

 may seize on the deleterious principles themselves, 

 which will have escaped its interior action, and de- 

 compose them for the profit of vegetation; that 

 this principle, as we have heretofore seen, by mak- 

 ing vegetation more active, increases the force of 

 absorption of the plants, and favors the advance- 

 ment of leguminous plants wliich live principally 

 at the expense of the atmosphere; that this vigor- 

 ous vegetation tends, as it is known, to make the 

 air healthy; either by emissions of oxygen, or by 

 the absorption of carbonic acid, or by some other 

 means, which nature has kept a secret. 



We will remark again, that the waters which 

 spring from calcareous mountaias, and wliich are 

 more or less charged with the calcareous principle, 

 conveyed over marshy meadows, invigorate them, 

 and make legummous plants and grasses grow 

 there. Calcareous waters, then, make the soil 

 healthy, and the soil made healthy in its produc- 

 tions, will be likewise so in its emanations. 



Besides, the soil too moist under cultivation, as 

 we have seen before, is found invigorated by marl; 

 its products become those of healthy soils: waters 

 that remain there, are then also modified, as well 

 as the soil. In moistening the marled soil, these 

 waters are charged, more or less, with the calcare- 

 <ous principle, which they transmit with the sap to 

 vegetables: they are then, themselves, made heal- 

 thy and capable of giving health, since they be- 

 <come favorable to vegetation, instead of being un- 

 favorable, as before marling. 



M. Garnier, engineer of mines, in his excellent 

 work upon the borer and its use, admits, in ac- 

 cordance with the observations of Lmnajus, as a 

 principle of experience in the art of the well-borer, 

 that waters, which run over beds of clay, are 

 ofien unhealthy or impure, while those which 

 spring from calcareous beds are light, clear, and 

 very healthy. A number of reasons, of greater 

 force, bring us to the conclusion, that waters are 

 made healthy by the calcareous principle. 



In fine, (especially in Dombe,) in driving away 

 the growth of silicious land to replace it with lesu- 

 minous plants, the calcareous principle would de- 

 stroy this plant with the cadaverous odor— this 

 nialfloiwe which covers and exhausts all the sur- 

 face of the fields after harvest — which infects the 

 air with its pestiferous exhalations, and which we 

 must regard as one of the principal causes of the 

 sickliness of the country. 



It would be an insufficient opposition to say, 

 that a small addition of calcareous principle to the 

 soil could not affect the general unhealthiness of 

 the country: on the contrary, it seems that this 

 ought to be the most active metuis that could be 

 employed; for, we have seen before, that the dele- 

 terious exhalations, which are mixed in the air 



that we breathe, and which infect it under the 

 gaseous form, proceed from the soil; and we ought 

 to think that it is from the upper or cultivated layer, 

 because the lower, which the water could not pe- 

 netrate, could no more give passage to tlie gaseous 

 emanations. 



, Besides, we cannot imagine an action more di- 

 rect, more close, and more intimate, than that of 

 marl on ploughed land. One conceives that it 

 can attack the unhealthy principle in the soil, as 

 well, and in the same manner, as lime water, or 

 slaked lime, destroys them, in habitations, on 

 dead bodies, and in privies. These great efiects 

 are produced by a single and superficial applica- 

 tion, while the addition of marl is made, and acts 

 on every part of the ploughed bed ; and it is m 

 their own laboratory, before they can be formed, 

 and even in their elements, that the principles of 

 insalubrity are attacked. 



In short, the calcareous principle which changes 

 the nature and productions of all the vegetable 

 mould, ought necessarily to change the combina- 

 tions, and modify the elements of them. The 

 emanations of the soil, which are the result of 

 these combinations, ought then to change also ; 

 and these emanations ought to cease being un- 

 healthy, because the general and known effect of 

 the calcareous principle is to give health. 



The opinion, that considers the calcareous prin- 

 ciple, and consequently marl, as one of the great 

 causes of health, although it may not have yet re- 

 ceived its sanction from the experience or discussion 

 of enlightened men, is, then, not only supported by 

 conjeclures, which explain and render it proba- 

 ble, but is also founded on facts, which give it, to 

 all appearance, a great degree of certainty. 



It would be then under the double report of 

 salubrity and fertility, that we can consider the 

 introduction of marl into Dombe, or in analogous 

 countries ; this double end ought to sustain our 

 efforts, and we would reap, from our labor, a suffi- 

 cient recompense, if we could aid in inducing the 

 introduction of marl into this important and unlbrtu- 

 nafe portion of our country. 



No one doubts, at the first glance, that marl is 

 suitable to almost all the extent of the unhealthy 

 country: its soil is almost all entirely moist and 

 argilo-silicious in composition, on wh.ich marl 

 displays the greatest activity. 



This country forms a triangular flat, placed be- 

 tween the Saone, the Ain, the Khone; its two 

 largest sides follow the direction of the Saone, 

 the Ain and the Rhone, and its base rests on what 

 is properly called Bresse. Its situation, near a 

 great outlet, and on two navigable rivers, seemed 

 to have destined it for great prosperity; but its 

 inferior soil, and its unhealthy climate, cause very 

 little profit to be made from its happy position. 



This country could possess all the advantages 

 of its position, and become healthy and fruitfLil. 

 For this purpose, we would think it would suffice 

 to give to the soil the calcareous principle which 

 it wants. This amelioration is possible, through 

 the means of marl, for a sufficiently great extent 

 of this country. We have seen, formerly, that 

 when marl is found in some parts of a basin, there 

 is some certainty of its being found in other 

 parts. 



As marl is abundant in the particular valleys of 

 the Saone, the Ain, and the Rhone, and part of 

 this country lies in the basins of these three rivers, 



