Cultivating and Improving Wastes. 161 



The celebrated Duke of Bridgewater effected a consider- 

 able improvement in this manner. He covered a part of 

 Chat-moss, with the refuse of coal-pits, (a mixture of earths 

 and stones of different qualities and sizes,) which were brought 

 in barges out of the interior of a mountain ; and, by com- 

 pressing the surface, enabled it to bear pasturing stock. Its 

 fertility was promoted by the vegetable mould of the morass, 

 which presently rose, and mixed with the heavier materials 

 which were spread upon it ( 4I ). 



The method of covering the surface of fen-land with clay 

 or marl, is strongly recommended in a paper on the Im- 

 provement of Huntingdonshire. It appears, that under the 

 fens of that county, and not far from the surface, there is a 

 species of clay marl, of a soft quality, that may be easily 

 worked. Where that substance is mixed with the fen soil, 

 the finer grasses flourish beyond what they do on the fen 

 soil unmixed ; and when the mixed soil is ploughed, and 

 sown with any sort of grain, the calcareous earth renders 

 the crops less apt to fall down, the produce is greater, and 

 the grain of better quality than on any other part of the 

 land ( 42 ). In some parts of Thorney Fen, (on the estate of 

 the Duke of Bedford), the tenants have begun the practice 

 of claying the light surface, by trenching with a spade. 



Mr Rodwell in Suffolk, has distinguished himself by 

 covering the surface of heath-land with clay and marl, to a 

 very extraordinary extent. With only two leases of 28 

 years in duration, he clayed and marled 820 acres, and used 

 about 14.0,000 tumbril loads, which, at 8 Jd. per yard, cost him 

 L.4958. Having taken a third lease, in the space of about 

 49 weeks, he employed 11,275 cubical yards of clay more 

 in covering the soil. He prefers clay to marl on sandy soils, 

 some of which consist of coarse, poor, and even black sand. 

 The result was highly satisfactory: L. 350 per annum were 

 added to the value of the estate, which, at 30 years' pur- 

 chase, is L. 10,500; and the public was benefited by the pro- 

 duction of more corn, meat, and wool, to the amount of 

 L. 30,000, in 28 years succeeding the improvement, than in 

 the 28 preceding it ( 43 ). 



In various districts, the soil is covered with chalk, at the 

 rate of from sixty to one hundred loads per acre, and it is 

 considered to be a profitable practice ( 44 ). 



In Scotland, this practice has been restricted to peat- 

 bogs. In several instances, the whole surface has been 

 covered with earth, clay, sand, gravel, shells, or sea-ooze, 

 from one to two inches thick, or more, (for it cannot well 



