12 SOIL. 



rials for its use. As colonies, increase, wants ate aug 

 mented ; the woods are consumed; the plow is intro- 

 duced, division of property follows ; a total change and 

 obliteration ensues, though the ancient appellation by 

 which the district was known yet continues. 



The parish consists in parts of a poor, shattery gray 

 clay, beneath which we find, in some places, a coarse 

 lias; in others a spongy, rough, impure limestone; in 

 other parts a thin stratum of soil is spread over an im- 

 mense and irregular rock of carbonate of'lime, running 

 to an unknown depth : this in many cases protrudes in 

 great blocks through the thin skin of earth. The rock, 

 though usually stratified, has no uniform dip, but trends 

 to different directions ; in some places it appears as if 

 immense sheets of semifluid matter had been pushed 

 out of the station it had settled in, by some other or 

 later-formed heavy-moving mass, or met with an im- 

 pediment, and" so rolled up : that these sheets had not 

 fully hardened at the time of being moved is yet made 

 probable by the whole crystallization of the mass being 

 interrupted ; so that no part adheres firmly, but sepa- 

 rates into small shattery fragments when struck. This 

 substance we burn in very large quantities for building 

 purposes, and for manure, which, by the facility which 

 we have of obtaining small coal, is rendered at the low 

 rate of three-pence a bushel at the kiln. Our farmers, 

 availing themselves of this cheap article, use considera- 

 ble quantities, composted with earth, for their different 

 crops, at the rate of not less than a hundred bushels to 

 the acre. This is a favorite substance for their potato 

 land. The return in general is not so large as when 

 grown in manure from the yard ; but the root is said to 

 be more mealy, and better flavored. 



The utility of lime as manure consists in loosening 

 the tenacious nature of some soils ; rendering them 

 more friable and receptive of vegetable fibres : it espe- 

 cially facilitates the dissolution and putrefaction of ani- 

 mal and vegetable substances, which are thus more rea- 

 dily received and circulated in the growing plant ; and 

 it has the power of acquiring and long retaining mois- 

 ture ; thus rendering a soil cool and nutritive to the 



