JANUARY. 45 



fend leaves remaining thereon, to make the basket- 

 work the closer. The earth and chalk are raised 

 from the pit by a jack-rowl on a frame, generally 

 of very simple and rude construction. To one 

 end of the rowl is fixed a cart-wheel, which an- 

 swers the double purpose of a fly and a stop. An 

 inch -rope of sufficient length is wound round the 

 rowl ; to one end of which is affixed a weight, 

 which nearly counterbalances the empty bucket 

 fastened to the other end. 



" This apology for an axis in peritrochio, two 

 wheel-barrows, a spade, a shovel, and a pick-axe, 

 arc all the necessary implements in trade of a com^ 

 pany of chalkers, generally three in number. The 

 pit-man digs the chalk, and tills the b:isket, and his 

 companions alternately wind it up, and wheel its 

 -contents upon the land : when the basket is wound 

 up to the top of the pit, to stop its descent till 

 emptied, the point of a wooden peg, of sufficient 

 length and strength, is thrust by the perpendicuhyr 

 spoke in the wheel into a hole made in the adjoin- 

 ing upright or standard of the frame, to receive it. 

 The pit is sunk from twenty to thirty feet deep, 

 and then chambered at the bottom ; that is, the 

 pit-man digs or cuts out the chalk horizontally, in 

 three separate directions ; the horizontal apertures 

 being of a sufficient heighth and width to admit of 

 the pit-man's working, in them with ease and safety. 

 One pit will chalk six acres, laying sixty loads on 

 an acre. If more be laid on, and to the full ex- 

 tent of chalking, viz. 100 loads, then a proportion- 

 able 



