212 



FARMERS* REGISTER 



[No. 4 



If this law of super-position exists, as is pro- 

 balile, it may be of great use in searching for 

 marls; but observe, that the clay does not exclude 

 the marl, except upon the spots where it is tbund; 

 and that it is no proof of exclusion on llie neigh- 

 boring portions. The earthy strata oi" the suriace 

 have been greatly warped {tourmenlccs) and 

 displaced; ihe.y are, therefore, even in the same 

 district, iar Ironi occupying the same level, and 

 jrom being regularly met with at the same dejjths; 

 nevertheless, in this disorder, great as it doubtless 

 is, the law of super-position which we have no- 

 ticed does not cease to exist. 



XXVI. Marl and lime are powerful agents of 

 fertility in this kind of soil; but for both, and parti- 

 cularly for lime, it is necessary that the soil sliould 

 be drained, or they must be applied to it in quari- 

 tities resembling those of the English. With this 

 condition ot the soils being invigorated [by drain- 

 ing,] these two agents have already changed the 

 liice of extensive districts, which have been dou- 

 bled by their means in wealth and population. 

 An age ago, Norfolk", now a county of classic ag- 

 riculture, was covered with heath; it is marl which 

 has rendered it capable of bearing that succession 

 oi' crops which makes it rival the most lixvored 

 .soils in (ertiiiy, One-third jjerhaps of the culti- 

 vated soil of England and Scotland has received, 

 and still continues to receive, fiom lime, an impulse 

 flf fertility which raises the mean product of their 

 fields to, at least, a half more than the same soil 

 produces in France. Marl and lime, in Germany, 

 have changed the aspect of whole provinces. It- 

 p,ly, by lime, has improved the culture of large wet 

 plateaux. America renews by lime the exhausted 

 fertility of vast plains, from which cultivation had 

 demanded too much without returning to ihem a 

 sulRcioncy of manure. 



In France, La Puisaye in Yonne, has been 

 trebled in value by marl: half the territory of the 

 Departrnentof the North owes its classiccultivation 

 to marl and lin]e; many cantons of Normandy, 

 the ^rrondissament of Bernay, the environs ot 

 Lisieux, seek for marl at a depth of 200 feel; and 

 linally in Sologne the use of marl has already im- 

 proved great extents, but unfortunately it is more 

 rarely found there than in other places. 



Lime in the three Departments of Normandy 

 has produced effects more numerous, more ex- 

 tended, but yet more recent than marl; a mine of 

 coal (homlle) of middling quality, worked during 

 the last i'aw years, there furnishes fuel fbr a great 

 number of lime-kilns, three-fourths of the product 

 of which are employed in agriculture. La Sarthe, 

 Maine-et-Loire, which have employed lime for less 

 than forty years, see their agriculture enriched in 

 proportion as its use is extended. 



The Department of Landes, with its barren 

 aands, is covered with harvests by the application 

 of lime to its soil: there is not perhaps an argilo- 

 silicious plateau, in France, on which trials of 

 marl and lime have not been made with success. 

 We are far, it is true, from a commencement of ex- 

 periments in their use on a large scale, but it is al- 

 ready a great point to have begun. 



Nevertheless, as it appears, scarcely a fourth 

 part of the argilo-silicious soil can have been im- 

 proved by cither of the means; if they wore ex- 

 tended to the other throe-fburlhs, it is not believed 

 that there is any exaggeration in saying that there 

 might result an increase of an eighth in the whole 



production of the French territorj-; an immense 

 result, doubtlcs?, and which would not be the only 

 one; fiir a nndtitude of" observations and argu- 

 ments, as well as the actual healtluntss of the 

 lands where lime and marl have been largely 

 used, should induce a belief that on this soil, im- 

 proved by the calcareous principle, the salubrity 

 which it wants would re-aopcar with the iijrtili- 



XX'^ II. W hen marl and lime are wanting, or 

 are at too great a distance, or too dear, their place 

 may be su|)j)lied, and, on this soil which requires 

 to be stimulated, an impulse of fertility may be 

 given analogous to that produced by the calcareous 

 agents. Faring and burning is a resource always 

 certain for these soils; there is then a production 

 of lime in tlie calcined vegetable particles. The 

 vegetable powers produce potash and lime even 

 in soils which appear to contain none; paring and 

 burning brings into play these active principles of 

 vegetation, which although in small proportions, 

 exercise all their influence on the soil; and more- 

 over the clay undergoes a modification which 

 seems to produce upon the soil an effect similar to 

 that of lime, and, like it, to develope, in a high de- 

 gree, the faculty of imbibing from the atmosphere 

 the elements of the growing plants. 



ANALYSES AKD QUALITIES OF JMAGNESIAN 

 SOILS. 



By M. Puvis. 



Translated for the Farmers' Reg;ister, from the Annales 

 de VJigricuUure Francaise. 



[The following extract is taken from the Excursion 

 Jg7wnoniique en Gatinuis, of M. Puvis, his publica- 

 tion which next succeeded the foregoing article, and 

 part of which is suited to follow in connexion. We 

 shall present such parts as may throw light on the 

 other communications of this writer, or otherwise, may 

 seem likely to furnish agricultural instruction. 



This part is selected as presenting specimens of a 

 new class of soils, those containing magnesia — and to 

 whieli ingredient, the autl-or attributes their sterility. 

 The facts presented are novel, (at least to us,) and 

 also interesting: but the author's deductions fiom these 

 facts, we dissent from altogether. Our ^'iews, in con- 

 tradiction to our author's, will be postponed until his 

 opinions have been presented.] 



Plateau of Gatinals. 



At some distance from Paris, when we leave 

 the valley of the Seine, after having ascended a 

 hillof considerable elevation, we find on the sum- 

 mit the silicio-argillaceous plateau; a great part of 

 the forest of Foutaineblcau is situated upon it, as 

 is that of Montargis; this jilateau sep;n-ates the 

 basin of the Yonne li'oni that of the Seine. Silex 

 jjrevails there in the state of sand; these sands 

 serve as materials for the brown free-stones {nux 

 gres d cement calcaire ct a cement siliccux,) which 

 are met with in only one part of the plateau; but 

 when the free-stone is wanting, there is always 

 found a great number of flints, wliich by their form 

 and ('overing greatly resendde those belongim'- to 

 chalk, which are tbund so abundantly in the basin 

 of the Seine as far as the coasts of the sea. Chalk 

 is found on the surface in many places below Pa- 



